Page 623 - ACFE Fraud Reports 2009_2020

CASE RESULTS

How do organizations react after a fraud has been

discovered?

We asked our respondents about what happened after the fraud was deter-
mined to have occurred. This data is valuable for developing expectations

about the remedies that are available to organizations, as well as evaluating
the common punitive actions taken against fraud perpetrators. The common
theme in this data is that while it is often worthwhile to pursue remedial ac-
tion against perpetrators, victims will usually not be made whole.

Internal Action FIG. 41 How do victim organizations punish fraud perpetrators?
Taken Against Termination
Perpetrator 65%

Survey respondents pro-
vided information about Settlement agreement
how perpetrators were 12%
internally punished or
dealt with. Not surprisingly, Perpetrator was no longer with organization
termination was the most 11%
common disciplinary ac-
tion taken in occupational Permitted or required resignation
fraud cases (65%). It is 10%
noteworthy that over one-
third of perpetrators were Probation or suspension
not terminated as a direct 8%
result of committing fraud.
In some cases the victim No punishment
organization imposed
lighter punishments such 6%
as permitting the offender Other
to resign (10% of cases)
or placing him or her on 4%
probation (8% of cases),
while in 6% of cases the
fraudster received no
punishment at all.

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