Page 222 - ACFE Fraud Reports 2009_2020

5 The perpetrators

We collected information about the individuals responsible for

occupational fraud in order to better understand the characteristics
of those who commit fraud and to see how certain types of fraud are
related to different job types or positions of authority.

Impact of Collusion

in nearly two-thirds of the fraud schemes covered
by our study, the perpetrator acted alone, a propor-
tion that was consistent with our 2006 study.

However, in both studies, schemes that involved
two or more individuals resulted in a median loss
over four times higher than the amount lost in
schemes committed by a single perpetrator. This
finding may reflect the fact that collusion often
enables employees to circumvent specific controls
that would otherwise detect or limit the impact of
a fraud.
Almost 50% of occupational
frauds involved the
accounting department
or upper management.

Number of Perpetrators — Frequency Number of Perpetrators — Median Loss

80% $500,000
2008 2008
70%
63.9% $500,000
60.3% 2006 $400,000 $485,000 2006
60%
Percent of Cases 50% 36.1% 39.7% Median Loss $300,000

40%
$200,000
30%
20% $115,000 $100,000
$100,000
10%
0% $0
One Two or More One Two or More
Number of Perpetrators Number of Perpetrators

46