Software company aims to preemptively thwart employee crime

Verensics questions workers on their behavior, ethics.

He had passed repeated background checks required by his company, according to investigators. And since he was the account supervisor for Infomart, a Marietta company that specializes in cor- porate background checks, Joshua Aaron Knight’s office was regularly locked due to the sensitive nature of com- pany finances.

The lock on the door didn’t prevent Knight’s alleged thefts, according to police. In March, a Cobb County grand jury indicted him on

100 counts of theft. He is accused of taking more than $800,000 from the company, the indictment states.

So what can companies do to prevent their own employ- ees from committing crimes? An Atlanta software company has a tool it says can help weed out the potential unethical or illegal behaviors before they happen, taking corporate security beyond the routine background checks.

“What we did was we came up with software that can streamline that process,” Russ Law, CEO and founder of Verensics, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

His company has created software, released in 2020, that combines technology with psychological tools in the form of an online questionnaire. Corporate security experts also were included in the development of the software, currently being used across the U.S. and in Mexico, Law said.

“When they sit down to do our automated interview, they’re much more likely to share information about their own behavior and their own ethical attitudes,” Law explained. “Research shows that people are much more likely to admit this kind of thing to a machine, rather than a person.”

And that information can potentially help businesses plan follow-up conversations, possibly weeding out future problems. Employers may

then be able to avoid costly investigations later on, Law said.

In Knight’s case, he was arrested and is currently free on bond. The case is pending.

For information on the Verensics, visit verensics.com.