ECONOMIC CRIME AND FRAUD COMPARISON BETWEEN EUROPE AND USA

Današnji svet dosega visoko stopnjo tehnično-tehnološkega in gospodarskega razvoja, katerim pa na žalost sledi tudi hiter porast gospodarskega kriminala in prevar. Gospodarski kriminal je skupaj s kaznivimi dejanji zoper premoženje najpogostejša oblika kriminala. Ves ta gospodarski kriminal in prevare zmanjšujejo zaupanje ljudi v razna računovodska poročila, posledično pa se razne institucije in vlade trudijo povrniti to zaupanje z izboljševanjem in dopolnjevanjem zakonodaje, standardov in priporočil. V raziskavi Report to the Nation 2010 so ugotovili, da prevare povzročijo na globalni ravni organizacijam, izgubo 5. odstotkov letnih prihodkov, kar znese 2,9 bilijonov dolarjev. Povprečna izguba zaradi prevar je znašala 160.000 dolarjev, skoraj četrtina prevar pa je povzročila izgubo večjo od milijona. Najpogostejše vrste prevar so bile nezakonito prisvajanje sredstev, ki so se pojavljale v 90 odstotkih vseh primerov, so pa le te povzročile najmanjšo povprečno izgubo po primeru, ki je znašala 135.000 dolarjev. Najmanj pogoste so bile prevare prikrojevanja računovodskih poročil, vendar so te povzročile največjo izgubo, ki je v povprečju znašala več kot 4 milijone dolarjev. Nobena gospodarska panoga ni imuna na prevare, slednje pa so bile najpogostejše v bančništvu, proizvodnji in javnih administracijah. Prevare so najpogosteje odkrili s pomočjo namigov, v organizacijah, ki so uporabljale notranje kontrolne sisteme pa so izgube zaradi prevar občutno zmanjšale. Kot najpogostejši vzrok prevar se navaja življenje preko zmožnosti, ki se pojavi v kar 43 odstotkih primerov. Ugotovitve nakazujejo, da so male organizacije zaradi pomanjkanja notranjih kontrol, več krat žrtev prevarantov. Te prevarante so razporedili v tri kategorije (lastniki, vrhovno poslovodstvo in zaposleni), izmed katerih največ prevar storijo zaposleni, med tem ko pa največjo škodo s prevarami povzročijo lastniki. Večina vzorcev prevar je podobna ne glede na regijo v kateri se prevara pojavi, zato so tudi ukrepi preprečevanja in odkrivanja dokaj enotni. Kot najučinkovitejše orožje zoper prevare navajajo tako imenovane vroče liniji oziroma mehanizmi anonimnega sporočanja prevar. Kot zelo učinkovito, vendar ne popolno orožje zoper prevare so tudi notranje kontrole, ki jih delimo na kontrole preprečevanja in kontrole odkrivanja. Prevar se najverjetneje ne bo moglo nikoli popolnoma preprečiti oziroma se jim izognit, vendar pa lahko z ustreznimi mehanizmi in kontrolami delno preprečujemo njihov pojav in povzročene izgube.The world today achieves a high degree of technical and technological economic development, which is unfortunately followed by a rapid rise of economic crime and fraud. Economic crime, together with crimes against property, is the most common form of crime. All cases of economic crimes and frauds undermine confidence of people in financial reports, which are leading various institutions and governments to return that confidence by improving and supplementing legislation, standards and recommendations. In Report to the Nation 2010 survey, they estimated that the typical organization loses 5 percent of its annual revenue to fraud. Applied to the estimated GDP, this figure translates to a potential total loss of more than $2,9 trillion. The median loss caused by the occupational fraud was $160.000, nearly one-quarter of the frauds involved losses higher than one $1 million. The most common frauds are asset misappropriation shemes, which are representing 90 percent of all cases – though they were the least costly, causing the median loss of $135.000. Financial statement fraud shemes were the least common but they caused the highest median loss of more than $4 million. No industry is imune for frauds and the moste commonly victimized industies are banking, manufacturing and government/public administration sectors. Occupational frauds are more likely to be detected by tip and organizations that appear to have some anti-fraud controls in place, had significantly lower losses caused by different fraud shemes. The moste common behavioral red flags displayed by the preperators were living beyond their means, which appears in 43 percent of all cases. The findings suggest that are small organizations, because of a lack of internal controls, several times a victim of fraudsters. Fraudsters were deployed into three categories (owners, management and employees), of which the moste cases of frauds are committed by employees, while the owners caused by fraud the highest damage. Most of the patterns of fraud are similar, regardless of the region in which the fraud occurs. Based on that the actions to prevent and detect fraud are quite simmilar. As the most effective weapon against fraud are hotlines. As a highly effective but not perfect weapon against frauds are also internal controls which can be divided into prevention and detection controls. In the future we would most likely never be able to completely prevent or avoid them, but we can through appropriate programs and controls partially prevent their occurrence and the losses that hey cause