If You Know, You Know… And You’re In Big Trouble

I worked at a nationwide check printing company. One Monday morning, a “special meeting” was announced by the plant manager. Eighty-plus employees were ushered into a meeting room before we went to our workstations.

This is shortened version of [Plant Manager]’s super vague speech.

Plant Manager: “Good morning, everyone. I know that you are wondering what this impromptu meeting is all about. Getting straight to the point, something has happened, and if you know anything about this, please see me after the meeting.”

Employees: “Huh? ‘Something’ like what? What in particular?”

Plant Manager: “I can’t tell you anything more than that! See me if you know anything about this ‘event’.”

Every coworker I talked to was clueless about the very odd “Something Happened” meeting.

A week later, we learned what the meeting was all about. Fraudulent cashier’s checks were showing up across the US. (A cashier’s check is a check drawn from the bank’s own corporate account. They are as good as cash, but they are ONLY printed for banks.) Our company had several printing locations, but all of the fraudulent checks were printed at the plant where I worked.

My company “hired” two “new employees” — aka FBI agents. It didn’t take long for the “new employees” to figure out what was happening.

[Coworker #1], an order taker, would enter a false cashier check order for a bank that my company did business with. [Coworker #2], a mail room worker, would simply steal the package before it was shipped out.

No one at the “Something Happened” meeting knew anything about the crime spree because it was a two-person crime gang. Mr. and Mrs. [Coworker #1 and #2] were not at that meeting. They had been arrested when they showed up for work that Monday.

Their plan was brilliant in its simplicity but short on traceability.