Page 547 - ACFE Fraud Reports 2009_2020

Perpetrators

Collusion Based on Perpetrators’ Relationship to Victim
Given the impact collusion appears to have on the size of occupational fraud, we wanted to see if this impact varied
based on who was colluding. Specifically, we compared frauds in which all the perpetrators worked for the victim orga-
nization to frauds in which an insider conspired with an outside accomplice at one of the victim’s customers or vendors.
We wanted to see if it was more common for insiders to conspire with one another or to work with an outside party,
and we also wanted to examine whether there were differences in the types of fraud committed or the size of the losses
depending on the group involved. As Figure 89 shows, insider collusion and third-party collusion were practically iden-
tical both in terms of frequency and median loss.

Figure 89: Collusion—Frequency and Median Loss Based on Perpetrators’ Relationship to Victim

$300,000 60%
55.8%
$250,000 $242,000 $250,000 50%

MEDIAN L OSS $200,000 40% PERCENT OF CASES

$150,000
30%
$100,000
21.3%
$85,000
10.1% 22.9% 20%
$50,000 10%

$0 0%
Single Insider Multiple Insiders Insiders and Outside Accomplices

NUMBER OF PERPETRATORS
Median Loss Percent of Cases

REPORT TO THE NATIONS ON OCCUPATIONAL FRAUD AND ABUSE 63