I don't quite get how the loss could have such an effect. The article says

"She hid her theft by creating dummy bills for suppliers and paying the money directly into her account."

If I'm reading this correctly, fake bills were created and entered as expenses, which were then paid from the company bank account.

If so, wouldn't the losses have shown up on the income statement? That would mean that the owner had the same amount of money he thought he had, but less than he should have had.

Likely some details are missing from the article.