According to a study conducted by the Association of
Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), fraudulent financial
statements accounts for approximately 10% of incidents
concerning white collar crime. Asset misappropriation and
corruption attend to occur at much greater frequency, yet the
financial impact of these latter crimes is much less severe.
ACFE defines fraud as “the deliberately misrepresentation of
financial condition of an enterprise, by intentionally
misstating or omitting amounts disclosures in the financial
statements so as to deceive their users”. Fraud’s effect on an
organization’s bottom line is just the tip of the iceberg.
Without a proactive approach to combating fraud, the ability
to gain and to maintain customer loyalty is almost
non-existent [1]. Additionally, organizations are said to lose
an average of six percent of their annual revenue to fraud and
abuse committed by internal employees. A proactive
approach to fraud identification is the only way to address
and to lessen the effect of fraud on organizations today.
Sophisticated techniques and methods are utilized to build a
financial profile of a suspected fraudster [2].