Skim - Paperback

by Emilie Thiessen (Editor), David Dart (Author)

Matthew Hall can see the flaw no one else has noticed.

At Sunbelt Business Funding, thousands of merchants repay cash advances through a percentage of their daily credit-card sales. The money moves through an aging computer system called Goose, fast, largely unchecked, and trusted to balance itself.

Matt is a gifted programmer with a good job, a new home, and a wedding to plan with the woman he loves. But the work no longer challenges him. When he realizes Goose could lose a few cents from selected transactions without anyone noticing, he writes a small piece of code to prove it.

Ten cents at a time. A technical experiment. Nothing more.

Then the experiment works.

Matt creates a hidden account, alters the reports that might expose it, and establishes an offshore route through Antigua. As SBF's business expands, those missing cents become hundreds, then thousands and the system he built becomes increasingly difficult to stop.

Bernice knows he is hiding something. Auditors begin examining the company's books. New security controls restrict Matt's access. And when SBF is sold, unfamiliar executives start pulling apart the systems that have concealed his secret.

Matt has never spent a dollar of the money. He tells himself that must mean he is not a thief.

But proving that a crime is possible and committing it are becoming harder to tell apart.