Global corporate fraud risk unveiled

Published on 3 Jun 2010 under category: legal

Businesses around the world are continuing to be hit hard by corporate fraud, a new report has revealed.

Businesses around the world are losing around five per cent of their total revenues to corporate fraud, newly-compiled figures show.

According to the latest annual report from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), businesses of all sizes are continuing to suffer from fraud, while criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their methods.

Corporate fraud experts across 106 countries told the professional body that many fraud schemes continue for several months or even years before they are eventually detected, costing firms dearly.

Occupational fraud is most likely to be detected on the back of a tip-off rather than in-house efforts to identify it.

The study also found that high-level perpetrators, such as company owners and chief executives, tend to cause the most damage.

This type of corporate fraud is on average nine times more costly than that committed by employees.

Commenting on the findings, ACFE president James D Ratley said: "Fraud knows no boundaries, and anti-fraud professionals worldwide face more challenges than ever in detecting and combating it."

The release of the report comes as former Vivendi chief executive Jean-Marie Messier goes on trial for fraud.

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