| It's over. You no longer have a friend or a co-founder. You may or may not have this business anymore. What you have now is the situational equivalent of the Kubler-Ross stages of death. Your brain needs to cope with this. Your brain isn't coping yet. What you do next will affect your future. Not because of this thief. Because your action will demonstrate to yourself that you can be jerked around and you will let people steal from you. OR NOT. I had an employee embezzle from me. Not exactly the same but similar. I was ashamed and embarrassed. I'm a tax lawyer FFS. I should be smarter than that. I had her arrested. It was time to stand up for myself. I suspect it is time for you to stand up for yourself. Your company may be dead as a result of this. You don't have total control over that result. Your next business will do well if you insist that you be treated honorably and not be stolen from. As soon as you're willing to let _this_ company die for reasons beyond your control, you'll take action. Because you already, in your heart, know what to do. There may or may not be ways to evict him and keep the company going. Don't hold onto this company at all costs. But do stand up for yourself here. If you don't the wheel will come around again and someone else will steal from you. And again until you insist that it stop. Then it will. |