Page 496 - ACFE Fraud Reports 2009_2020

How Occupational Fraud Is Committed

Asset misappropriation is by far the most common of the three primary categories of occupational fraud, consistently
occurring in more than 83% of all cases reported to us (see Figure 4). These schemes tend to cause the lowest losses
of the three categories, with a median loss of $125,000 per scheme. On the opposite end of the spectrum is financial
statement fraud, which was involved in less than 10% of the cases in our study, but which caused a median loss of
$975,000. Corruption schemes fall in the middle in terms of both frequency and losses. Approximately 35% of the cases
we analyzed involved corruption, and these schemes caused a median loss of $200,000.

Figure 4: Occupational Frauds by Category—Frequency

83.5%
Asset Misappropriation 85.4%
86.7%
TYPE OF FRA UD Corruption 33.4%
35.4%
36.8%

9.6%
2014
Financial Statement Fraud 9.0% 2016
7.6% 2012
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

PERCENT OF CASES

Figure 5: Occupational Frauds by Category—Median Loss

$125,000
$130,000
Asset Misappropriation $120,000
TYPE OF FRA UD Corruption $200,000

$200,000
$250,000

$1,000,000
Financial Statement Fraud $975,000 2016
2014
$1,000,000
2012
$0 $500,000 $1,000,000 $1,500,000 $2,000,000
MEDIAN L OSS

12 REPORT TO THE NATIONS ON OCCUPATIONAL FRAUD AND ABUSE