( API ) Asia Pacific Investigations

API concentrates on violations of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and related statutes committed by large, publicly traded (or private) corporations, and/or by their senior executives.  These schemes are characterised by their scope, complexity, and the magnitude of the negative economic consequences for communities, employees, lenders, investors, and financial markets.  Most corporate fraud investigations are joint efforts involving many federal agencies.Contact us now if you suspect fraudulent activities are working behind the scenes in your organisation.






In what conditions does fraud thrive? Fraud is found to be more frequent in organisations with some or all of the following characteristics:

1. Domineering management with no effective oversight board or committee.
2. Climate of fear or an unhealthy corporate culture.
3. High staff turnover rates in key controlling functions. Long-service staff in stores/purchasing departments.
4. Chronic understaffing in key control areas.
5. Frequent changes of legal advisers, auditors or professional advisers.
6. Excessive reporting leading to insufficient time for analysis of data.
7. Remuneration based very significantly on financial performance.
8. Inadequate segregation of duties  - e.g. where an individual orders goods, approves the invoices and then authorises  the payments.
9. Low staff morale / lack of career progression / weak management.
10. Excessive hours worked by key staff with insufficient delegation of duties.
11. Lack of effective procedures in HR, credit control, inventory control, purchasing or accounts departments. Consistent failure to correct major weaknesses in internal control.
12. Management frequently override internal controls.
13. Rumours of fraud not dealt with effectively or at all.
14. Inadequate internal reporting or management accounting.
15. Loss of records or inadequate documentation about transactions.
16. Unusual transactions having a large profit effect.
17. Frequent transactions with related parties/ no checking that suppliers are appropriate.
18. Overly secret dealings with certain clients or suppliers.
19. Mismatch between profitability and cash flow.
20. Excessive pressure to meet budgets, targets or forecast earnings.
21. Personnel not required to take  their holiday entitlement.
22. When an employee is on holiday leave the work is left until the employee returns.
23. Inadequate responses to queries from management, suppliers, auditors or bankers.
24. An employee's habits change or his/her lifestyle is more affluent than would be expected from his/her employment.
25. Lack of common-sense controls such as changing passwords frequently, requiring two signatures on cheques or restricting access to sensitive areas.

Common features of fraud Except in the case of investment fraud or  some consumer scams, most cases of fraud will impact the company profit and loss account or balance sheet. Frequently fraud will become apparent when investigation reveals one or more of the following:

1. Credit notes given to customers for undisclosed or inadequate reasons.
2. High level of inventory losses accepted without investigation.
3. Suppliers insist on dealing with only one employee in the department.
4. Discrepancies in petty cash are not investigated or written off to "sundry" expenses.
5. Payroll summaries are not checked by department heads or by the HR department.
6. Excessive habitual overtime worked without relation to workload.
7. High levels of sickness absence not investigated.
8. Unduly friendly relations between some employees and their suppliers or service providers.
9. Faulty goods are not returned to the supplier for credit or credit notes are not chased up.
10. Excessive and constant level of returns to suppliers.
11. Company assets are not checked against a fixed asset or stock register.
12. Inadequate reconciliation of balance sheet accounts.
13. Insufficient justification for balance sheet reserves.
14. Unusually high levels of despatches or purchases just prior to the period end.
15. Employees' expense claims are not checked and authorised by departmental managers.
16. Management appears to condone petty fraud because "everybody knows about it but never does anything about it".
17. Invoices from some suppliers seem high in relation to the goods or services rendered.
18. Amounts are written off the sales ledger without authorisation or investigation.
19. Management and supervision are remote from those they control.
20. Some branches are in reality uncontrolled because of geography or because no manager has become involved in the branch.

Effective fraud detection requires management to be sufficiently knowledgeable about the mechanics of the business and constantly aware of the need to be vigilant against fraud
It requires experience to both prevent and detect fraud and expertise to trace and recover missing assets. We have many years combined experience in both the police and commercial sector, both investigating and prosecuting company fraud and other associated matters. Whilst no one would pretend to guarantee that they could eliminate fraud in the business sector, we prefer to not only offer a reactive service in the investigation of offences but, more importantly, to take a proactive approach to fraud by assessing the risks present in business practices and recommending simple bespoke cost effective solutions to minimise the opportunities for fraud to arise at all
It requires experience to both prevent and detect fraud and expertise to trace and recover missing assets. We have many years combined experience in both the police and commercial sector, both investigating and prosecuting company fraud and other associated matters. Whilst no one would pretend to guarantee that they could eliminate fraud in the business sector, we prefer to not only offer a reactive service in the investigation of offences but, more importantly, to take a proactive approach to fraud by assessing the risks present in business practices and recommending simple bespoke cost effective solutions to minimise the opportunities for fraud to arise at all.



Consider these statistics: -
- Over 40 million is lost everyday to fraud in the UK
- 80%of corporate fraud involves the collusion of an employee
- 90% of fraudulent employees have been with their employer for
- over a year
- 20% of fraudulent employees have been with their employer for
- over 10 years

Remember the perfect fraud is such that the victims are blissfully unaware that they are victims.

Are you sure that neither you nor your company are a victim?