The Gauge of Innocence - CFO Magazine - April 2009 Issue - CFO.com

The Gauge of Innocence - CFO Magazine - April 2009 Issue - CFO.com


The Gauge of Innocence
Fraud takes many forms. Count on all of them to increase this year.
S.L. Mintz - CFO Magazine
April 1, 2009


Excerpts:

In tough times, companies face plenty of honest challenges, and most managers and staffers rise to the occasion. But inevitably, as pressures multiply, some will cave in and demonstrate poor judgment, or worse. They may blur the lines on revenue recognition, tinker with stock options, abuse reserves, or evade loan covenants. Petty favors from vendors or "innocent" side deals with customers snowball into grand larceny.

Pay cuts, layoffs, diminished morale, and fewer resources devoted to internal controls are among the specific pressures that "open the door to fraud in a down market," says Kerry Francis, chairman of Deloitte Financial Advisory Services, the accounting firm's U.S. fraud investigative arm.

She began emphasizing such concern in early 2009, after a Deloitte survey found that two-thirds of 1,280 financial-services and technology executives expected to see more instances of accounting fraud.

CFOs can't be expected to peer into the souls of every employee or business partner, of course, but they do need to be more cognizant than ever of the three sides of the classic "fraud triangle": pressure, opportunity, and the capacity to rationalize. When those elements unite, fraud often erupts.

The perpetrators are frequently those you would least suspect, says Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions. Repeated behavioral testing shows that people cheat if they can get away with it — even smart, Ivy League–educated people with relatively little to gain (see "Thou Shalt Not Commit Fraud" at the end of this article). "The moment you have a fuzzy environment," Ariely says, "the more this can happen." In finance, recessions are very fuzzy. "CFOs are on shaky ground," warns Ariely, "because they are [now] operating in very difficult conditions."

Read full article: http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/13356806?f=most_read
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This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.