Find Deviant Behaviors, Find Fraud?

Sophisticated fraudsters may be able to conceal their frauds, but they may not be as adept in hiding their workplace deviant behaviors. Identifying or recognizing a correlation between the two, even if the correlation is weak, could significantly improve the anti-fraud profession's ability to uncover fraud.

On his first day on the job, Joe started viewing "adult" movies on his company computer and paying for them on his company-issued credit card. He continued this behavior during his six years with the nonprofit and racked up more than $4,000 in inappropriate charges. But that wasn't all. After Joe resigned, an audit of cash collections showed Joe took more than an additional $50,000 in donations. Another audit of the cash disbursement account also revealed Joe was writing checks payable to "cash," and personal checks written from this account totaled more than $28,000. In the end, Joe's frauds totaled more than $82,000. The company prosecuted Joe, and he received probation.

Throughout my career, when investigating fraud complaints, I would find that suspects often also would have problems with pornography, bullying, harassment and other human resources issues. Conversely, when I would be called in to investigate human resource complaints and issues, I occasionally would find one or more fraud schemes involving these individuals.