worked for the company for nearly $15$ years. Eventually, this routine became so familiar to employees in accounts payable that Miano did not even need to make up an excuse to pick up checks. Each time he would collect them, he stashed the check for the false invoice in his pocket. When he returned home to New Fairfield, Connecticut, he took the check to his bank, forged the contractor$$s name on the back, then endorsed it with his own name and deposited the check. McGrane explains that Miano was able to pull off the scam due to failure of internal controls and employees not following standard accounting procedures. $$For any business transaction, the invoices should be dispatched independently to the approving authority. Once signed, the approved invoices should be sent independently to accounts payable. When the check is prepared by accounts payable, they should mail it directly to the third party. Under a strong internal control system, the employees and$/$or contractors should not be allowed to come in and collect checks directly. Direct contacts with accounts payable personnel make it too tempting for someone to try to misappropriate funds.$$ Accounts payable also failed to combine the invoices into a single check$$they wrote a check for each invoice. $$Had they combined it$,$ McGrane said, $$his false invoice would have been added into the legitimate painter$$s monthly invoice summary, and the money would be mailed to the legitimate contractor,$$ McGrane said. Accounts payable neglected to study the invoice signatures for forgeries, and the accounting department dropped the ball by not perusing processed checks for dual endorsements, another red flag for potentially misappropriated funds. Miano$$s first transaction totaled $$1,200.$ His second transaction jumped to $$6,000$his third, $$12,000.$ His largest single transaction came to over $$66,000.$ Miano refined his strategy by pacing, on a parallel basis, a certain amount below the total due the painter. $$If the painter submitted an invoice for $$20,000$ a month,$$ McGrane said, $$Miano would submit an invoice for, say, $$14,000.$ If the painter submitted a $$6,000$ invoice, he$$d submit one for $$3,000.$ The individual invoice amounts, because of the continuing construction, would not have alarmed even an auditor. Miano$$s behavior at the office was the same as ever. He dressed the same way, drove the same car to work, and shared little of his private life with other workers. He had not taken a vacation in over four years, and his boss thought he should be promoted $($a move Miano resisted, for reasons now obvious$).$ After hours, however, Miano was a different person. Coincidence two: McGrane$$s secretary was not only on Miano$$s bowling team, she was also his neighbor. They saw each other regularly at the local bowling alley. She took notice when Miano$$s behavior became somewhat extravagant. At first he took to buying the team drinks, a habit most appreciated by his teammates. However, the secretary began wondering where all the money was coming from when he showed up in his new Mercedes $($one of five cars he bought$)$ and talked about a new $$18,000$ boat. He also invested in real estate and purchased a second home costing $$416,000.$ McGrane$$s secretary approached Miano one night after he had spent some $$800$ on drinks for the team. $$Did you win the lottery, or what?$$ she asked. He explained that his fatherin$-$law had recently died and left a substantial inheritance to his wife and him. Miano$$s father$-$in$-$law was actually quite alive, but no one ever bothered to check out the claim. No one suspected Miano of doing anything sinister or criminal. All of his associates considered him $$too dumb$$ to carry out such a scheme. One person described him as $$dumb as a box of rocks.$$ Coincidence three: After four years without a vacation, Miano took what he considered a well$-$deserved trip to Atlantic City. But he wasn$$t there long before he was called back to Pleasantville. One can imagine his chagrin at having to leave the casinos and boardwalks and head back to the office. Little did he know that things were about to get a lot worse. Upon his return, Miano found himself confronted by the auditor, the vice president, and two attorneys from the district attorney$$s office. He readily admitted guilt. $$He said he had expected to get caught,$$ McGrane said. $$He did it strictly based on greed. Miano claimed there was no one else involved, and the sum total of his fraud was about $$400,000.$ But the internal audit found that Miano had forged endorsements on more than fifty checks in those four years, totaling $$1,057,000.$ Ironically, the auditors could only identify about $$380,000$ spent on tangible items $($boats$,$ cars, down payment on a home, etc.$).$ The investigators could not account for the other $$700,000,$ although they knew Miano had withdrawn at least that much from the bank.

How did Miano rationalize his fraudulent scheme?