Global

South Asia follows parallel roads of burgeoning economy and escalating fraud

It’s a familiar story. A country or region finally is prosperous, but inevitably fraud and corruption increase. Here are some infamous South Asian cases and ways the region has battled what affluence wrought.

U.S. Navy corruption on the high seas

The $35 million “Fat Leonard” corruption scandal threatens to decimate an entire generation of experienced U.S. Navy officers. What unfolds is the rise and fall of the defense contractor who bought off Navy brass with meals, liquor, women and bribes.

Africa needs solid education to fight fraud

When corruption thrives and dirty money is kept in offshore accounts, Africa’s high levels of poverty remain. How do we reverse the trend? The solution lies in reviving countries’ primary educational standards and increasing fraud awareness and education.

Nordic nations' corruption fight remains strong

A recurring theme of scandals bringing down Iceland prime ministers illustrates citizens’ intolerance toward corruption. Yet are attitudes, protests and political repercussions enough to reverse the trend of worsening corruption in Iceland and other Nordic nations?

Are the prices of cryptocurrencies being manipulated?

Investors and regulators are concerned that cryptocurrencies are highly susceptible to price manipulation. This danger is particularly pronounced for the hundreds of small, thinly traded “altcoins” that have popped up in the wake of the success of bitcoin and Ethereum. In February, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued an advisory warning investors that these small virtual currencies are targets for pump-and-dump schemes.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) defines personal data as information relating to an identifiable individual, directly or indirectly. That word “indirectly” is important. By having indirect identification in scope, the regulation acknowledges that the traces one leaves behind online aren’t always the obvious descriptors like names and addresses.

Swiss whistleblowers pay the price

Whistleblowers are “in.” We regularly hear spectacular U.S. stories of employees blowing the whistle on organizations and receiving large federal payouts from prosecution of multimillion-dollar fraud cases. But what’s the whistleblower situation in Europe and, more specifically, my home base, Switzerland?

A doping dichotomy

A man in Los Angeles was determined to make a documentary that showed the anti-doping system in sport was a fraud. A man in Moscow helped construct that fraud. When Bryan Fogel and Grigory Rodchenkov met in 2015, neither could have guessed they’d land together in the middle of a dangerous geopolitical crisis that would expose decades-long corruption, shake up the Olympics and, ultimately, produce the riveting documentary, ICARUS.

She didn't avert her eyes from 1MDB corruption

Clare Rewcastle Brown just couldn’t ignore the corruption. “I could see it was a massive and underreported scandal of vast proportions,” Brown says in the cover article, written by Sarah Hofmann, CFE. “I asked why no one was covering it, and for some time I hoped someone else would. Then I realized all the local people who knew about it felt disempowered.”

Chile's anti-corruption model raises Latin American standards

In 2017, Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company, admitted to using bribery and corruption to secure more than 100 projects in 12 countries in Latin America, which generated illegal gains of about $3.3 billion. Odebrecht’s corruption reached the highest levels of government: The web of bribes implicated Latin American presidents, senators and officials.

Confronting the challenges of cross-border fraud examinations

As your organization grows, its business could expand into new nations. You might be conducting fraud examinations in cultures with unfamiliar social customs, laws and judicial systems. As I covered in part one in the January/February issue, you should have a solid cross-border investigative plan before you tackle a case with roots in several different countries.

Fraudulent facets

Diamond fraudsters dupe consumers of all types, including savvy investors and collectors. The global diamond trade, like many other collectable markets, is at the mercy of the absence of transparency. Buyers must cautiously scrutinize gemstones and other low-utility/high-value objects. Here are practical ways for fraud examiners to avoid rip-offs.