From what I gather, it was pretty easy to pull off. Keep in mind the guy was the CFO-- as in CHIEF Financial Officer.

He took advantage of the circular flow of money that comes in to full service agencies (pre-bills for media), undistributed investment accounts established to keep agency funds growing, a second set of books (remember the CFO part) and a generational difference in "trust."

Bob, the owner of the agency during much of the theft, is of the WWII generation that tends to be a little less cynical in their outlook toward others. In short, while he would pop in and audit random accounts monthly (auditing, it turns out, the second set of books Phil kept), he simply trusted Phil.

When the other two partners purchased the agency from Bob, Phil joined in on the purchase-- no doubt taking a minority stake simply to keep the other two from delving too far into the accounting. It is my understanding that Bob and Phil talked the other two out of performing an outside audit at the time of the purchase because 1) the CFO was taking part in the purchase, so obviously everything was ok, 2) Bob trusted Phil and 3) the costs associated with an outside audit were prohibitive.

Granted, there were a lot of balls dropped along the way, but it's terribly easy to "mis-manage" cash in a full service agency that sees millions of dollars flowing in and out of its accounts each month, especially when you're the CFO and have the unconditional trust of the CEO.

And, to take my mind off the "most creative part" dig and not take offense, I'll spend the next few minutes dusting my hardware. ;)