The Trusted Employee Who Stole $700K+ | Courtney Staiger & Amber Weber

Dental embezzlement is the theft of money, product, or time by someone inside your own practice, and nearly half of dental offices report being stolen from. If you think digital payments, AI tools, or an office manager who feels like family make you immune, this is your wake up call. The person closest to the money is often the one taking it. The losses add up quietly through payroll bumps, stolen insurance checks, padded overtime, and extra PTO until it is death by a thousand paper cuts. On The Real Talk of Dental, host Brandi Marzolino, a 20-year dental industry veteran and leadership coach, sits down with Prosperident fraud examiners Courtney Staiger, a Certified Fraud Examiner and former dental assistant, and Amber Weber, a Registered Dental Hygienist, for a true crime breakdown of two real cases: a family friend who stole about $225,000 and an inherited employee who took more than $700,000 from two owners. You will learn why your CPA is unlikely to catch theft, why no payment type is safe, the one question to ask any AI payment posting vendor, and why Amber says transparency is the first casualty of embezzlement. Trust your instincts, verify everything, and get a second set of eyes on your numbers before your practice becomes the next story. You’ll learn: Dental embezzlement warning signs often start small, like a $2,000 payroll bump that quietly grows to $30,000 a year when nobody cross-checks payroll, supply orders, or bonuses. Why your CPA will not catch dental embezzlement: accountants are not inside your practice management software, so timing gaps get excused away as insurance or deposit lag. Transparency is the first casualty of embezzlement, so your whole team should know how to run reports, spot check past months, and ask why numbers changed after the fact. How a proactive embezzlement audit uncovered $155,000 stolen from a new owner in just 18 months, plus $580,000 more from the previous owner, with no obvious red flags. No payment type is safe from dental office theft, including insurance checks cashed through mobile deposit and digital payments that hit the bank before or after posting. The question to ask any AI payment posting vendor: do you reconcile from the bank first or the EOB first? Courtney Staiger explains why bank-first is a red flag. How to prevent embezzlement in your dental practice with background checks, verified employment history, separation of duties, clear associate contracts, and an outside expert exam. 🔗 Join the community and submit your anonymous questions: https://www.therealtalkofdental.com 🔗 Learn more about The Empowered LeadHERship Program for Women in Dental: https://leadhershipexperience.com/ 🔗 Boundary Boss GPT: https://leadhershipexperience.com/bou... We talk about: 00:00 Why no dental practice is immune to embezzlement 11:00 The trusted family friend who stole $225,000 16:00 How a proactive audit uncovered hidden theft 18:00 Do dentists press charges against embezzlers? 24:00 Will your CPA catch embezzlement in your practice? 28:00 Associate pay errors from adjustments and vague contracts 33:00 Why you need an outside financial exam 35:00 How insurance checks get stolen through mobile deposit 39:00 The AI payment posting question to ask vendors 41:00 ADA survey data on dental embezzlement rates 44:00 Background checks and verifying past employers 46:00 Lifestyle red flags and trust but verify Got an insurance horror story or a fee negotiation confession? Leave Brandi an anonymous voicemail for The Real Talk of Dental at https://www.speakpipe.com/TheRealTalk... Connect with Courtney Staiger and Amber Weber: Prosperident: https://www.prosperident.com/ Meet the team: https://www.prosperident.com/our-team The Prosperident Exchange podcast: https://www.prosperident.com/podcasts Connect with me LinkedIn:   / brandimarzolino   Instagram:   / brandi.marzolino   https://courageandjoyatwork.com/ https://leadhershipexperience.com/ Phone: 616-682-6222 #fraudcase #dentalpracticemanagement #embezzlement