Who’s Really Stealing Company Assets?

...KPMG’s latest white collar crime study shows that even if most executives are honest, the dishonest among them account for the largest chunk of the problem. Put another way, while the typical executive may not be a swindler, the typical swindler is in management, especially senior management. Staff cause the problem only 18 percent of the time.

The reason for this is obvious. Executives have the access to financial assets, and ironically, they are the ones whom everyone else, including security, tends to trust most and watch least. Weak internal controls were exploited in 74 percent of the cases (spanning 69 countries) that KPMG examined. In 50 percent of those cases, red flags (such as missing documents or complaints from suppliers) were ignored.

Hat-tip: Security Management