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A dreadful racket
Timon Molloy, Editor
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
Business leaders push governments to act on corruption
The recent Ernst & Young European survey may have detected disquieting tolerance of unethical means of winning business but there is positive movement as well, evident in the call by a group of international business leaders on governments to..
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
Unethical business finds strong support in Europe
Cash bribes to secure work are acceptable according to 25% of the responses to a European survey by Ernst & Young. Half of the 2,200 employees in major companies across 22 European countries who took part were relaxed about unethical business..
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
Plea negotiation guidelines promise shorter fraud trials
The Attorney General issued new guidelines on plea negotiations in cases of serious or complex fraud in early May. The aim is to promote more open plea discussions at an earlier stage and avoid protracted proceedings that have weighed so heavily on..
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
Indian police agency unravels Satyam accounting fraud
by Raghavendra Verma, in New Delhi
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
OECD and Switzerland clash over banking transparency
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Switzerland have staged a public row over Swiss banking secrecy. In a highly undiplomatic letter to Hans-Rudolf Merz, the Swiss President, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría..
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
OLAF rapped over procedural lapses in fraud prosecutions
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has censured European Union (EU) anti-fraud authority OLAF for flouting employee rights when assisting Italian prosecutions of alleged EU frauds. The court ordered OLAF to pay 42 Italy-based officials at the..
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
Corporate data theft doubles in two years
Employees are stealing confidential information at twice the rate in 2006 as they seek to bring more to the table in a tougher jobs market. In 70% of more than 100 cases of corporate date theft analysed by Mishcon de Reya and KPMG, former employees..
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
Directors beware
Directors who fail to take reasonable steps to prevent and detect fraud in their company may find themselves personally liable to account to the company even if they do not benefit from and are not involved in the fraud, write Andrew Keltie and Charles Thomson of Baker & McKenzie.
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
Making up for Madoff
US financial regulatory reform is under urgent consideration in the aftermath of the vast Ponzi scheme executed by Bernard Madoff – a failure of oversight and enforcement that led to severe criticism of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [1]. Russell Berman in Washington DC examines the control fall-out from probably the world’s biggest fraud.
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
EU ministers back criminal records exchange system
Creation of a European Criminal Records Information System will now go ahead, with European Union (EU) legislation sanctioning and detailing its operation approved by the EU Council of Ministers. The confirmation came with an EU decision on..
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
ISO develops global guidance on fighting fraud
The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) will develop specialist global standards to help businesses and public authorities root out fraud. These will be framed by a new technical committee ISO/TC 247 ‘fraud countermeasures..
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
Hotlines are heating up
Whistleblower hotlines aren’t new, but the image of a small cadre of phone operators juggling calls and jotting notes has gone the way of the rotary phone, write Gabriel Romero and Angella Davis of The Network, Inc. Today’s hotlines are highly technical fraud prevention tools made available to a host of stakeholders in a multitude of languages and accessible via a variety of intake methods including phone, Web, fax and email. And while an organisation’s hotline represents one of the most critical components of a corporate governance programme, it is just that – a component – and its merits in terms of mitigating risk (and delivering a return on investment) multiplies exponentially when integrated with other hard-working components.
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
When the SFO calls
Professional advisers such as accountancy firms and lawyers are very often among the first ports of call as and when the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) (or indeed other bodies with investigatory powers such as the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (DBERR)) begin any enquiry into potential fraud or inappropriate conduct. Requests for documents and witness interviews may be made at very short notice and at an early stage of the investigation; it is wise to be prepared, say Andrew Scott and Andrew Forsyth of Barlow Lyde & Gilbert.
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
“Do you really want to harm me?” …Time to join the ‘Culture’ club?
As the recession bites, fraud will increase and organisations, more than ever before, need to ensure they are robust against attack. With budgets and resources being slashed, attention needs to be focused on protecting finances and assets from falling victim to fraud. Reducing fraud losses and other financial harm to an absolute minimum is crucial if one is survive the storm, as every pound lost to fraud is (at the very least) a pound not spent on achieving the organisation’s aims and objectives. John Baker, National Director of RSM Bentley Jennison’s Business Integrity and Investigation Service looks at how improving the anti-fraud culture could help save the organisation money and protect its reputation.
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
A profitable trade – the record on insider dealing and market abuse
Since insider dealing and market abuse were made unlawful, there have been few cases of either brought to the courts and even fewer proved successfully. Why is this? asks Professor Paul Barnes of Nottingham Business School. Perhaps they are not as prevalent as generally believed or perhaps it is due to the difficulty in proving a case. He argues that both insider dealing and market abuse are common but it is difficult to identify the culprits (certainly in the case of insider dealing) although the law now is more helpful to the prosecutor than it was.
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009
Social engineering – sharpened tools
In difficult times, bankers need all the friends they can get. But it’s important to be sure your new best friend isn’t a fraudster on the make wanting to exploit the situation. As financial institutions are continually probed by fraudsters looking for a way to compromise security, Andy Holder has been investigating their methods and modus operandi. The tricks they pull and the games they play are impressive, and are turning social engineering into a new black art that threatens to make trying to protect against technical vulnerabilities redundant, along with a great many more bankers.
Online Published Date:
12 June 2009
Appeared in issue:
June/July 09 - 01 June 2009