Facing the Facts on Fraud

SURVEY SAVVY

ricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2005 “Global Economic Crime Survey” of more than 3,600 executives in 34 countries found that 45% of companies were victims of fraud—up 8 percentage points from 2003 ( www.pwcglobal.com/gx/eng/cfr/gecs/ ). Losses for all respondents exceeded $2 billion, with larger companies reporting the greatest number of incidents.

Upon discovering fraud, 81% of companies launched internal investigations and informed their boards of directors. In financial misrepresentation cases, 89% of companies investigated, but only 84% of them informed their boards and only half told their audit committees. Surprisingly, despite the growing risk, only 21% of respondents expected to be fraud victims in the next five years.