I witnessed my boss commit fraud and I am too scared to report it

I work in accounting at a mid-size DFW company. About 50 employees, privately owned. I have been here for 3 years. The pay is decent and the work-life balance is good. I was content.

Six weeks ago, I was reconciling accounts and found a discrepancy. About $45,000 was moved from the company operating account to a vendor account I did not recognize. I looked up the vendor. It is an LLC registered in Texas. The registered agent is my boss — the CFO.

I thought maybe it was a consulting arrangement or something legitimate that I was not aware of. So I dug deeper. Over the past 18 months, approximately $280,000 has been moved to this same vendor in irregular amounts — $15K here, $40K there, $25K another time.

There are no invoices for these payments. No contracts. No approval chain. The payments were coded to a miscellaneous expense category that does not get line-item reviewed.

I am 95% certain my boss is embezzling from the company.

Here is why I have not reported it:

1. The company owner trusts the CFO completely. They have been friends for 20 years. If I report this and the owner sides with the CFO, I am fired.

2. Texas is an at-will employment state. I can be terminated for any reason.

3. I have a mortgage. Two kids. My wife is in graduate school. I cannot afford to lose this job.

4. If I am wrong — if there is a legitimate explanation I am not seeing — I have just accused my boss of a felony and my career at this company is over.

5. If I am right and I report it internally, the CFO controls the financial systems. He could alter records before anyone investigates.

I have quietly made copies of everything. Statements, transaction records, the LLC registration from the Texas Secretary of State website. Everything is stored on a personal drive at home.

I know what the right thing to do is. I also know what the safe thing to do is. And right now they are not the same thing.

Anonymous for very obvious reasons.