Page 444 - ACFE Fraud Reports 2009_2020

Perpetrators

As part of our survey, we asked respondents to sup-
ply detailed information about the perpetrators of the
frauds they had investigated. This includes data on
level of authority, age, gender, tenure with the victim
organization, education level, department, criminal and
employment history, and red flags that the fraudster
exhibited before the scheme was detected. The value of
this information is that it helps us identify and quantify
where fraud risk might lie within a particular organi-
zation: What departments tend to be associated with
which types of frauds? What demographic factors seem
to impact the frequency or severity of occupational
frauds? What behavioral clues might have led the victim We asked respondents to supply detailed
organizations to identify these crimes earlier? Also, information about the perpetrators of the fraud
because this data has been gathered over several years’ cases. The value of this information is that it
helps us identify and quantify where fraud
worth of reports, we are able to show how consistent risk might lie within a particular organization.
the patterns of fraud and abuse tend to be over time.

Perpetrator’s Position
Figure 40 shows the distribution of fraud perpetrators based on their level of authority. Forty-two percent of
occupational frauds were committed by employee-level perpetrators, 36% were committed by managers and
approximately 19% were committed by owners/executives. The distribution of these categories has remained
remarkably consistent from year to year.

Figure 40: Position of Perpetrator — Frequency

42.0%
Employee 36.2% 41.6%
42.1%
POSITION OF PERPETRATOR Owner/Executive 16.9% 18.6% 37.5% 41.0% 2014
Manager

17.6%
3.2%
2012
Other*
3.2%
2010
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
*“Other” category was not included in the 2010 Report. PERCENT OF CASES

40 RepoRt to the NatioNs oN occupatioNal FRaud aNd abuse