Follow the money

A sudden spike in embezzlement cases has Reno detectives scratching their heads.

The embezzlement-related caseload of detectives in the financial crimes unit has doubled in the past month or so, but no one is certain whether the upsurge is random or the result of some unknown underlying factor.

But one trend appears to be developing, says Chuck Lovitt, the detective sergeant who oversees the financial crimes unit: The cases commonly involve staffers such as bookkeepers who hold positions of trust with their employers.

Last month, detectives booked Joy Celeste Irvin, the owner of Quick and Easy Payroll Services in Reno, for investigation of allegations that she skimmed more than $120,000 that her clients thought she'd paid on their behalf to the Internal Revenue Service.

And just a few weeks earlier, detectives had arrested Traci Dawn Walker of Sparks in another embezzlement case. Walker was working as a restaurant bookkeeper, and police say she embezzled more than $45,000 from the restaurant in about nine months.

The charges faced by Irvin may expand, Lovitt said last week, as other clients of Quick and Easy Payroll Services sort out their records.

Officers say it appears that the payroll firm, which worked with medical-related businesses, collected money from its clients to make payroll tax payments with the IRS. But the money wasn't sent, and investigators believe that delinquency notices from the IRS were sent to the payroll service rather than the clients.

In the past, Lovitt said, most of the embezzlement cases in Reno were relatively simple affairs employees skimming a little cash out of the till at the end of their shift, for instance.

But the new round of embezzlement cases are far more complex and demand a big chunk of the financial crimes unit's resources.

The Quick and Easy Payroll case took six months of investigation before detectives made an arrest. Walker, meanwhile, was arrested after a four-month investigation.

Those are big chunks of time for a unit with a supervisor Lovitt who works with six detectives, a clerk, and a part-time retired detective.

Along with embezzlements, the detectives handle cases ranging from check fraud to identity theft and financial exploitation of the elderly.

Their caseload is growing.

About 500 cases a month cross the desk of Lovitt. He decides which to pursue based on the likelihood that a suspect can be identified and prosecuted a criteria that doesn't necessarily satisfy angry and frustrated crime victims.

"I have to triage that stuff, and it's not fun," says Lovitt.

Driving the growth in financial crimes they're now as common as burglaries in Reno is the technological skill of a young generation of criminals.

Faced with the hard work of an armed robbery or the easy work of stealing over the Internet, young crooks increasingly turn on their computers, Lovitt says.

"The generation that grew up programming their parents' VCR now is old enough to commit these sorts of crime," Lovitt says.

That demands, in turn, that detectives keep their technology skills equally sharp, and Lovitt says Reno police executives have made a strong commitment to training for the financial crimes unit.

When it comes to sorting out the financial details of a possible crime, the detectives often turn to the expertise of Reno-area banks.

But the best strategy remains unchanged, Lovitt says: Businesses and consumers need to exercise diligence in their financial relationships, asking questions and listening to that small voice that cautions them when something looks fishy.