ACFE Report to the Nations: global study on occupational fraud
/The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners has published the 2020 edition of the Report to the Nations, a study of the impact occupational fraud has on organizations throughout the world. This study represents the most comprehensive examination available of the costs, methods, victims, and perpetrators of occupational fraud.
Occupational fraud —fraud committed by individuals against the organizations that employ them—is among the costliest forms of financial crime in existence. There are more than 3.3 billion people in the global workforce, and nearly all of them have access to or control over some portion of their employers’ cash or assets. For the ones who decide to seek illegal gains, their workplace is, in many cases, the most logical and convenient target. While the vast majority of those 3.3 billion people will never abuse the trust placed in them by their employers, the small percentage who do can cause enormous damage. As this report illustrates, that damage could amount to trillions of dollars in losses each year.
This study contains an analysis of 2,504 cases of occupational fraud that were investigated between January 2018 and September 2019.
Key findings:
Hotlines work. Sixty-four percent of companies victimized by fraud last year had whistleblower hotlines, and those companies experienced smaller losses (median losses of $100,000 versus $198,000) that were caught earlier (12 months versus 18 months).
Training leads to more tips. At companies without anti-fraud training, only 37 percent of fraud cases were discovered by a tipster submitting a report. At companies with training, that number jumped to 56 percent.
Managers matter. Twenty-eight percent of whistleblowers first reported their allegations to their direct supervisor, and another 11 percent went to a more senior executive. Only 14 percent went to a fraud investigations team, and 12 percent went to internal audit.
Calling the cops is on the decline. Forty-six percent of victim companies didn’t refer their cases to law enforcement, believing that internal discipline against the offender was sufficient.
Fraudsters still face consequences. Even when companies don’t involve law enforcement, 80 percent of fraudsters still faced some sort of internal discipline.
Lees hier het volledige rapport.
