For 13th years, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) has shared with us the results of their annual survey, with the latest being Occupational Fraud 2024: A Report to the Nations.
I have been reading and commenting on their reports for years and you can find a few blog posts here using the Search function.
This year’s report is based on 1,921 fraud cases investigated by CFEs between January 2022 and September 2023, of which 38% were in the USA.
The ACFE broke the cases into three categories:
- Asset theft or misuse represented 89% of the cases with a median loss of $120,000.
- Corruption (bribery, purchasing or sales schemes, extortion, etc.) was involved in 48% of the cases, with a median loss of $200,000.
- Financial statement frauds were only 5% but the median loss was $766,000.
38% of the cases had more than one of the above, with 35% of the cases involving both asset theft or misuse and corruption.
The ACFE found it interesting that less than 1% of the cases involved financial statement fraud alone.
The median duration of a fraud was 12 months, and the average loss per month was $9,900.
Internal controls can have a significant impact on reducing fraud risk. The ACFE reported that:
…four controls—surprise audits, financial statement audits, hotlines, and proactive data analysis—were…
