Companies and organizations that are hit with employee fraud, including embezzlement, asset misappropriation, and financial statement manipulation are often surprised that the incident occurred. Even more surprising to executives and boards of directors is the fact that their auditors didn’t find the fraud sooner, or didn’t find it at all. After all, isn’t that what auditors are supposed to do?

In one case, the bookkeeper for a non-profit organization was stealing for several years and cleverly covering her tracks. She didn’t let the checks get too large, and she divided the check amounts between many accounts so that the entries in each account would be very small. She knew that if the amounts were small enough, they probably would not be carefully examined during the annual audits.

Would you recognize the clues that your client has been ripped off by one of its employees? Or would management conduct business as usual, blindly trusting their employees?

Companies make the mistake of not actively searching for fraud. They tend to trust their employees and trust the procedures in place to safeguard company assets.

It may be good business to trust employees and empower them to make real contributions to the growth of the company. However, it is not wise to turn a blind eye to signs that a trusted employee may be stealing.

Last week, CFO Magazine published an article online about CFOs opposing the potential proposal by the  Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) requiring companies to switch auditors every 5 to 10 years.  More than 625 comment letters, many from CFOs, controllers, chief accounting officers, and audit committee chairs,  have been submitted to PCAOB since the organization raised the issue of mandatory auditor rotation in August.

The PCAOB is suggesting that forcing companies to change auditors every few years will make the audits better. They say that a new accounting firm would equal a fresh set of eyes, and therefore a more skeptical audit.

I get asked all the time whether I can find hidden bank accounts around the world.  The answer is mostly no. Brian Willingham of Diligentia Group wrote a helpful article about this last year, entitled “Can a Private Investigator Get Bank Records or Account Information?”. His answer is also no.

There are laws in place to protect your financial privacy. So if a private investigator, forensic accountant, or other professional tells you that they can find hidden bank accounts, you can be assured that they are using dishonest and illegal means to do so.

 How CFOs can assist independent investigators and not mess up the integrity of the results.

By Tracy Coenen, Contributing Editor at CFO.com

With the government’s increased focus on ferreting out corporate fraud, companies face a higher risk of gigantic defense costs, negative media reports, and substantial civil or criminal penalties. Cases involving bribery and corruption under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, for example, are costing companies their reputations and their profits.

It takes only one credible whistleblower with access to enough documentation to make a compelling case to a government agency to get the ball rolling. The saving grace, however, can be an aggressive compliance program, complete with thorough internal investigations of tips and red flags, plus swift and certain remediation.