Fraudulent T&E reports can indicate greater ethical lapses

In 2008, shortly after receiving my CFE credential, my boss emailed me asking to join her in a meeting with the company’s general counsel to discuss a travel and entertainment (T&E) matter. I was young and a newly minted CFE. I naturally felt terrified and nervous to be included in such a high-profile meeting at an early stage in my career. The general counsel told my boss and me that a member of upper management was potentially falsifying expense reports. This was my big chance to make a difference at my company to root out fraud but also make a name for myself.

The general counsel gave me a year’s worth of the manual expense reports and all the applicable receipts for each. I quickly noticed a trend that all the handwriting for the costs listed on taxi receipts matched the signature of the driver. Coincidentally, I also used the same taxi service when I traveled to the airport, and I remembered how the taxi driver, when dropping me off, would give me a handful of blank receipts for me to fill in.

Ultimately, I determined that the manager had forged the taxi receipts to the tune of a couple thousand dollars, but we didn’t identify anything further during the expense review. However, when I presented this information back to the general counsel, they decided this manager’s misdeeds were enough to tarnish their trust, and the company terminated the employee.