Page 107 - ACFE Fraud Reports 2009_2020

Table of Contents

Why do Organizations Decline to Take Legal Action?
In cases where the victim organization declined to take legal action, we asked respondents
to tell us why. A list of 12 common reasons was given, and respondents marked as
many as applied in their particular case. The following chart shows the results of this
inquiry. Although no reason was prevalent, private settlement and fear of bad publicity
were the most commonly cited reasons, each occurring in over a quarter of the “no
action” cases.

Reasons for Declining to Take Legal Action

Private Settlement 26.6%
26.6% 30.6%
26.1%
Fear of Bad Publicity
Reason for Declining Legal Action Internal Discipline Sufficient 9.3% 13.8% 17.4% 21.4% 25.8% 2004
20.2%
Other
19.7%
Too Costly
14.9%
2002
Victim Wanted Closure
15.6%

Don’t Know
11.0%
Perp Lacked Assets
Gov’t Declined to Prosecute 6.9% 9.2% 15.3%
19.0%
Lack of Evidence 9.2%
8.1%
Fear of Countersuit 6.0%
5.2%
Perp Disappeared 1.4%
0.4%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Percent of Cases

We also found that to some extent, the decision of whether to take legal action in a
particular case may be influenced by the perpetrator’s position within the victim
organization. As the following chart shows, the higher a perpetrator’s level of authority
within an organization, the less likely the organization was to take legal action against
that perpetrator. This is an unusual trend, especially given the fact that median losses
tend to rise with position level.

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