Asset Misappropriation Fraudsters

Verification of assets is the process by which the auditors examine the accuracy of assets appearing in the balance sheet. Asset details of directors, individuals and companies are crucial information and often required by banks and individuals for various reasons including debt recovery. To carry out such a crucial and sensitive verification process, the best verification agency in this field “ Fourth Force” can be relied upon. They specialize in offering the clients with Asset Verifications services and have expert hands in locating particular asset or benami assets in the name of individual or company and prove the authenticity of the information against the fraudulent activities within the organization by providing the right information.

Asset misappropriation fraud crops up when the person who is entrusted to manage the assets of an organization, thieve from it.

Frauds can be committed internally or externally by customers, vendors, or third parties or employees in an organization who abuse their position to steal through fraudulent activities. The internal type of fraud can be committed by company directors or its employees or anyone else entrusted to manage the assets and interests of an organization. The assets stolen are cash or cash equivalents such as credit notes or vouchers. However, the fraud can extend to include company data or property. At one hand, asset misappropriation fraud may be limited to remote cases of expense fiddling or an employee lying about his or her qualifications to get a job and on the other hand, it might involve organized crime groups trespassing organizations to take advantage of weak processes and inadequate internal systems. Ultimately, it’s the cash flow of the business that suffers. If they’re not tackled, opportunistic frauds can affect the entire system and spread throughout an organization, creating a world of theft and fraud. And all these fraudsters backgrounds are not verified before letting them in the company which should be a mandatory step in every organization.

A victim of asset misappropriation fraud could undergo the following possible fraudulent activities in an organization:

• Dishonest behavior where false invoices are being created.

• Trickery by employees where their current position of employment is used to make other inappropriate purposes.

• False expense claims and preparing fraudulent cheques for their own benefit or intercepting a cheque intended for a third party and using it for their own benefit

• Payroll fraud, where payments have been diverted or bogus profiles by creating ‘ghost’ employees or falsified hours of work and salary.

• Skimming process where the cash is removed from the entity before it enters the accounting system.

• Travel expenses are another common type of fraud activity where the employee creates a false expense calculation and causes the employer to over pay.

• Inventory and warehousing frauds involve misappropriating inventory for personal use, stealing inventory & scrap.

• The most prone form of fraud activity in an organization are the fixed assets. These are the targets for theft and unauthorized personal use like computers and tools.

Protect yourself against all these kinds of asset misappropriation fraud. Your organization can take the following step to help to protect itself from asset misappropriation fraud – checking employees CV, check their criminal and address background thoroughly, their references and also their educational background before employing them in the organization. Your organization also has a responsibility to protect other employees and employers. Simply dismissing a fraudster enables him or her to move to another employer where he or she will most likely continue their fraudulent behavior. Consideration should be done to take part in a fraud data sharing scheme or decide to cite the fraudster when the fraud is uncovered.

“Revolutions are effected in two ways by force and by fraud” – Aristotle