Two men managed to steal several thousand dollars from the State of Pennsylvania by filing fraudulent claims for unclaimed property.

Stefan Arteaga-Pizenbauer, 37, of Levittown, PA., and Luis Maura, 26, of Hamilton, were both recently sentenced to 364 days in the county jail and three years of probation, respectively, for stealing unclaimed funds from the state in 2006.

An “unsophisticated” credit card fraud yielded nearly half-a-million dollars in ill-gotten gains for one accounts payable clerk.

According to an article posted on Canada.com, an AP clerk for Vancouver Island InsuranceCentres perpetrated a credit card billing scheme against the company from 2003 to 2006. During that time, she stole $437,544.

Those waiting for the answer to whether the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is unconstitutional may not have to wait long. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to soon reveal its decision, which could significantly impact U.S. accounts payable departments.

According to a report published by the Journal of Accountancy, the U.S. Supreme Court will likely announce its decision in the case, Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, before the end of its current session on June 28.

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Unclaimed property acts as a significant source of short-term cash for state governments. While seeking the property’s rightful owner, states are free to invest it and even earn interest. How states handle this interest is an issue that recently found its way to the Illinois State Supreme Court.

While some states – such as New Jersey – pay interest to property owners when the property is returned, Illinois returns just the property. Any interest earned from investing the funds remains with the state.

Stop the leaks in your AP department by automating manual processes and eliminating paper.

The terms electronic invoicing and electronic billing are often tossed around interchangeably. Technology users, solution providers, and industry experts alike all seem to be confused. E-billing and e-invoicing actually describe slightly different processes.

According to a recent entry posted on finextra.com, e-invoicing focuses on the business-to-business market while e-billing has more to do with the business-to-consumer space.

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Very small AP departments might consider a simple solution for managing invoices: that old workhorse, the Portable Document Format (PDF) file. Adobe’s Acrobat Messenger lets AP departments transform paper documents into electronic files and send them at Internet speed.

With three simple steps, office workers can

1. scan invoices or documents;
2. preview and, if necessary, modify documents;
3. send documents to multiple destinations.

A former accounts payable clerk already under investigation for embezzlement has recently been arrested once again. She is now charged with stealing more than $300,000 from her former employer.

According to an article printed in The Davidson News, the clerk was first charged with four counts of embezzlement back in February. Last week, she was arrested again when additional fraudulent transactions were discovered.