Imre Communications firm client pitch to national financial magazines (2004)
Did you know that employee dishonesty has gotten worse, not better? Over $660 billion is lost to employee theft, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) 2004 report on Occupational Fraud and Abuse claims. That’s nearly a ten percent increase – or $60 billion – from 2002.
And contrary to conventional wisdom, the CEO may be more of a threat than the guy stocking the shelves. While executives only account for one in four thefts, the 2004 ACFE report found companies’ losses from owners and executives to be more than 14 times as high as employees.
Would you be interested in a byline article about how a company or organization can detect and prepare for a six percent loss in annual revenues due to employee theft?
Cary Meiners, an expert in Financial and Professional Services at St. Paul Travelers, has identified five ‘red flags,’ which can lead to increased employee dishonesty. They are:
- Fast growth – leads to a lack of control as companies create multiple locations and satellite offices.
- Mergers and Acquisitions – causes discrepancies with internal controls between the merging companies.
- Use of outside vendors – can lead to improper billing and sometimes fictitious vendors.
- High value inventory – higher priced retail entices employees to steal.
- Travel – padded expenses, such as phony dinners and cab rides.
Cary Meiners can author an article or if you’d like to interview him for one, we can arrange that as well. He can discuss details about each of these ‘red flags’ and discuss risk mitigation. Please let me know if you are interested. Thanks.