Crime Analyses and Financial Crime Defenses - Assignment Example

Running Head: Financial crime defenses Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Financial crime defenses Date : xxxxxxxxxxx 2010   FINANCIAL CRIME DEFENSES Introduction Theft at work place is very common in most business organization. It at times starts with the top management way back to its employees. Thought alone is however not a crime. For one to be deemed to have committed a crime of theft he/she needs to have the mens-rea “animus furandi” meaning fraudulent and actus-reus of taking .For an individual to be considered a thief at the work place, the actor must have the willingness to cause harm to the employee or organization for that matter. In order to be convicted as a thief at the work place by the Australian court of law, the robber must have the ability to possess the employers property without his/her consent. Theft can be defined as the ability to forcefully posses something that is not rightfully ones. Theft is totally complete even with the slighted change of ownership of properties is adequate to cause harm. While there are many types of white collar crimes, this crime usually involves employees or servants stealing money or goods from their employers or masters. Most countries offer a penalty of about 10 years imprisonment since the crime is a felony i.e. serious offence. An example of authority for clarity is illustrated below, “If any person shall embezzle…or convert to his own use…any…property of any kind…which shall have…been entrusted to his care or possession by virtue of his…employment or job…, he shall be guilty of felony embezzlement, and, upon conviction…shall be imprisoned… This phrase is an illustration of how this crime can be defined fully. The Act makes it an offense for any one (or an agent of that person) to give, promise or give "a financial or other gain" to another person with the objective of suggesting that person to perform offensively" a function or activity. Similarly "pecuniary or other benefit" is left to be determined "as a matter of common sense by the tribunal of fact" and is not well defined. The "function or activity" is defined broadly by the proposed legislation in that it applies equally to public and private sector business and includes all activities performed either in the course of employment or on behalf of an individual ( Champion 2005). The concept of theft appears to be more of a criminal offence rather than a civil offence. A penalty is granted for all perpetrators who would be found guilty in Australia court of law. Australia has an effective way of handling or dealing with theft at work place. Thieves’ at work place co-exist in our day to-day life, different organization however different ways of handling these circumstances. It is very essential to monitor closely criminal activities carried out either by the employee or staff by the human resource manager in order to fully identify. most of the organization are faced with this criminal offence in many different ways, this may be through faking, forging and stealing some important document that belong to the organization Theft at work place is usually stanched by corporate employees or rather owners with the main objective as to acquire financial advantage over the rest of other people. These crimes may involve acts such as fraud, making hazardous products, dangerous work and environmental pollution. Theft crime at work place poses a vital threat to the community welfare. Thought of the pervasive incidence of a wide range of theft in the community, and their long term and short term impacts are way too much wider cluster of individuals who are either directly or indirectly are affected by the crime. Financial theft at work place is not entirely conducted by the top management or top executive but also by the employees, an estimation of about 79% of workers agree that they have stolen or are considering stealing from their manager. while this activities have gotten out of most people mind, but the main reason as to why most business are operating as a separate legal entity tends to wind-up its activities because of theft. Stealing has become more of a culture in most business premises thus it is good to consider the reasons behind this acts (Chappell 2000). Reason as to why people steal at work place Work place theft is mostly not out of need, but rather it tends to be out of greed as well as contempt. Moreover a lot of people believe that once they witness their contemporaries stealing and cutting corners, they also believe that it is morally accepted for them to do so. It may not be lingering in many people mind as to why most people turn out to be burglars at work place, these reasons ranged from simple majority thought to individual. One of the reasons is that a human resource manager may recruit an employee in an existing firm knowingly or unknowingly that the individual was a thief. Individuals who works with a certain organization may tend to steal reason being they feel they are underpaid; some steal because they feel it is their money that is potentially misused by the manager or an appropriate officer in a particular organization. What is done? Steps to be taken in such situation, There is a simple tactic or tactics that can be apprehended in order to stay ahead of the activity; this is possible in a way that the business certainly ensures that shareholders are not swindled by their staffs. This can be ensured through the following: first is to maintain proper books of account by an appropriate officer in charge of the transaction activities in an organization. Second, is to ensure that the accounts prepared are virtually in agreement with the books of account, this means that no organization is required to prepare suspense account. Suspense account means that the organization internal control system is not working properly, as a result, employees uses the prevailing circumstances to steal for such organization. Third is to ensure that sound accounting policies and procedures are dully adhered to in the preparation and presentation of financial statement in the organization. And lastly is to ensure that the financial statement prepared shows a true and fair view, this includes that profit and loss account, balance sheet, cash flow statement and statement of financial position of the organization (Hobbs 1995). Ways-Do Background research Besides fraudulent employees’ compensation claims, employees tend to steal time in order to carry out their malicious activity by taking unjustifiable leave or having employees punch time cards. The best way through which an employer may detect theft is through pre-employment screening. A survey from different organization reveals how multifaceted theft is carried out by the employees in different nations. It came out that most of the employees are likely to steal top secrets from their managers to be used by a different firm. Survey reveals that many organizations lose more than $250 billion per annum from crime theft carried by the employees in a given organization. No organization what so ever is immune from workers theft. Individuals from all walks of life tend to participate in theft crime. Arresting criminals is very easy in small cities and town, because there is much less individuals who tends to rely on the complicated procedures. Many organizations prefer handling issues concerning crimes without necessarily involving the police. The second way of dealing with theft at work place is through firing employees the manager suspects of fraud. The employer may fire after a careful consideration of the prevailing circumstance at the moment and obtaining sufficient evidence necessary for the firing process from document and witnesses. It is very important for employers who do not press charge an employee suspected to be conducting fraud to take an immediate action of firing the employee at the work place. It is also very important to inform the employees the employees the reason as to why you are firing them is due to their incompetence’s at the work place. This focuses more on the worker performed, rather than whether the employee stole. An employer is required to get hold of register receipts, difficulties in obtaining evidence, altered evidence that will show or prove theft, suspected pay to the government officer, existence of suspense account and for giving bad change at the work place (Lane 2003). Stages Of all the distressing, frustrating and aggravating situations that tend to occur at the workplace, none is likely to simultaneously affect and trigger all these sentiment more time after time than an incident of theft at the workplace. Certain work-related "watchdogs" reports of theft at workplace are so rampant between employees, which account for the preponderance of ordinary commerce losses suffered by major companies as well as the financial institutions, today. An employee who tends to engage him or herself in behaviors such as faking compensable on -job injuries ,stealing from employer financial records and engaging mostly in elaborate schemes in order to embezzle funds or rather misappropriate trade top secrets that cost most employers millions of dollars per annum. In banking industry, despite of all the security measures, occurrence of employee theft and misappropriation are relatively more common, in spite of the size or complexity of the meticulous banking department or institution (Nixon 2008). One of the most difficulties that majority of the employers face when brazened out with evidence of theft at workplace or embezzlement is that tend to concentrate more on right and the ability to investigate facts and circumstantial surrounding evidence the incident are entwined with the innumerable of rights and fortification conferred upon the entire employees by state laws. The employer's use of drug tests, , outside investigators, polygraph tests, , credit checks, honesty tests, video cameras and monitoring devises is specifically conditioned upon employer following more than one federal or state laws , for instances EPPA ( The Employee Polygraph Protection Act). No matter the seriousness of the episodes may be, and the employer desire to apply federal and state laws, rules and regulations necessary for the employer to carry out a thorough investigation of employees’ ”theft at workplace” When you interrogate a veteran law enforcement of the officer, state or federal investigator, you will establish and understand that there are few stages or steps that every employer keeps in mind in order to further the employer's aptitude to ascertain whether more than one employees are directly or indirectly involve in a particular incident of theft and cash embezzlement at workplace. None of the actions either impact, or are interfere the myriad federal and state laws which is fundamentally established to protect employers and employees' rights, as long as they are constantly undertaken it without looking upon to any employee's lawfully protected standing First stage First stage is to immediately "Shore up" discretion. The first step is for the employer to take and consider the economic loss discovered in order to counsel out those members of management who are impacted and affected by the loss ,involved in the investigation and underpin in them necessity privacy and secrecy in the timely investigatory procedure. No investigation should be facilitated by a premature leak of information to the competitors or wrong party. This is particularly important to carry out theft investigation process at the workplace in order to reveal crucial cause and effects of the theft in the organization (Salinger 2005). Second stage Second stage is to identify those workforces (At all stages of the Organization) who had access and a chance to steal thus causing a lot of losses. These procedure and process of recognizing ways to which employees had entrance and a chance to consign the act of theft is potentially very crucial to the accomplishment of the inquiry. Through this Identifying employee facilitates, permits and enhance employer to put more focus and attention in obtaining different statements regarding the applicable and several events from a similar but separate small group of workers with as little confession as possible. Starting with a slight investigation, thereby broadening investigation necessary, this helps to maintain top secrecy in the development thus permits the gathering of " several stories" pertaining the events sooner than employees immediately begin to converse amongst each other and match up to the notes. When scrutinizing employees to examine, employers should not at any moment omit workers merely as a result of having worked for so many years with the employee, are more trusted and rightfully seem to be "good" people, hold a top position with the employer and they are relatively good friends. All employees regardless of their position and friendship with the management must be subjected to a thorough investigation in order to establish the cause of financial theft in the organization. Third stage Third stage is to ask Identified Employees who has been picked for investigation process for the occurrences of theft at work place to Write a clear Statement on those event. Once an employee is identified, the employer is then required to divide them one by one in order to get their statement and compare it to each other (an employer is required to use divide and rule strategy in order to obtain more information). The employer is fundamentally required to ask each one of the employees to write events concerning the theft that has taken place in the organization. This evident that must be provided by the employees. It must however be evidenced in writing and must be accompanied or made preferably in front of a neutral member who is not directly or indirectly involved with business matters. Different employees must sign their own individual statements. Statements evidenced in writing, are to be unruffled early in the analysis, that is, earlier than employees bestow with one another in the room or office, is an important instrument. Immediately after an employee writes and explains down his or her description of events, they "commits" to a story (Muncie 1996). Fourth stage Fourth stage is orally Interview all the employees who’s especially their written statements does not Match at any moment with other fellow employee's accounts. It is most likely that through the oral investigation, the guilty employee who might have stole or is an accomplice of the thieves will surely confess the crime. Much more may be gathered from the evaluation of successive worker recounts of the events adjacent an episode of economic loss as result of theft at the workplace. Fifth stage Fifth stage is to conclude that those employees who unsuccessful refused to Co-operate, should become argumentative, or rather who are not in agreement with their Stories thereby given about the theft that has taken place. There are at least three main objectives the owner wishes to achieve when inspecting an incident of theft: first, to discover and identify who was directly or indirectly involved in the event in order establish the employee who was involved, the employee possibly to be removed at the workplace at this point is very high. Second, make an attempt in order to recover the lost money or property for that matter, and third, to impeach the employee under appropriate laws. A manager does not have to really "solve" the inquiry which worker caused a financial loss in turn to achieve the first and most important goal. Concluding on the statement made by the employees that seems to be different or keeps on changing from time to time is very important, who refuses to oblige, or who has become suspicious and aggressive, usually realize the employer's chief objective. At very slightest, with the alleged "guilty" employee (s) out of the workplace, the manager should put up a strategy that will put off another financial loss incidence (Hobbs 1995). Sixth stage Sixth stage is to put in mind or consider other alternatives or options. When the employer's financial loss is relatively substantial, the manager should consider most on relying upon a qualified professional pollster .While there are different or distinct forms that are specifically to be used and a precise procedures then followed , the fair credit coverage act and most of all the employee polygraph defense act permit an independent investigators' conference and polygraph test fallout to be mostly used by an manager during the investigating incidents of financial loss or grievance to the owners business premises. Most of the times, simply the procedure of going through the discern and admission events required mostly by the (EPPA) Employee Polygraph Protection Act, joined with gallant disagreement on conflicting story peak by a professional investigator, which has the potential of causing the "guilty" employee who might have something to do with the lost or theft to fully to confess their wrongdoing act (Kadish 1983). It is at time very difficult for an employer to embark on an exploration and then pursue from beginning to end and later on terminate those workers who the analysis reveals or finds them to be "guilty" or pessimistically involved with financial loss through theft in some respect. However, many people argue that the experience, workers who commit embezzlement, theft or fraud do not stop even after inflicting so much damage to the organization with their one act of wrongdoing. These workers more often than not do not alter the future performance, no matter how much they tend to contrite they may be when exposed and no matter how believable evidence on the circumstances prevails. To prevent expectations of theft event of financial harm, courteously, but firm restraint for liable workers is always the best way of dealing with them if not all (Lane 2003). Recommendation Managers and co- workers should establish and enhance an office watch program far away from the building. This can be established by the office, or floor to assist alert each individual by unconstitutional visitors or budding criminal activities. This program can be used to follow similar guidelines as that of the Neighborhood observe Program. It is therefore very essential to communicate and Contact the management FPS office in order to ask for assistance of installing the watch program. Challenge lost visitors maneuvering around the hall and immediately escort them to a right office house to call for their intended visit. This mostly carried out to facilitate and reduce strangers getting in and out of the firms premise. The management is also required to watch out especially for head poppers who intentionally open the wrong door and pretend to be keener looking for a precise office or individual. If they tend to act so nervously or rush immediately to the adjoining exit door, remember the caller’s description, and immediately call the security. The management is also required to lock the entire offices, storage rooms or conference rooms that are frequently unoccupied. It is also very essential to exercise discreet, that is, do not publish or advertise holiday plans or nonattendances by the co-workers when there is a total stranger in attendance to the office at that time. Where it is necessary to work after business hours, it is important to maintain and keep all leading doors locked and notify the security officer available of your presence and what exact time you will be leaving the business premise. When an individual is potential the last person to leave the business premise at night, lock all computer systems, copiers, and critical files. Where the organization use any electrical devices, it is essential to make clear in your mind that they are perfectly turned off. Conclusion Most managers are not putting enough effort to deal or handle such cases in the organization. Sometimes both the managers and employees may collude together to commit a crime of theft at the work place thereby, making it so hard for the organization to attain its annual or monthly objective. Different organization have a different objectives. Theft at work place can be reduced through stipulating and enhancing a good strategy and penalty for those who would be found guilty. References American Chamber of Commerce of Venezuela, Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce & Industry. (1993). Financial crime at work place. American Chamber of Commerce of Venezuela. Champion, D. J. (2005). The American dictionary of criminal justice: key terms and major court cases. Scarecrow Press. Chappell, D. (2000). Violence at work, Volume 1; Volume 56. International Labor Organization. Hobbs, D. (1995). Professional criminal’s international library of criminology, criminal justice & penology. Dartmouth. Kadish, S. H. (1983). Encyclopedia of crime and justice, Volume. Free Press. Lane, F. S. (2003). The naked employee: how technology is compromising workplace privacy. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Muncie, J. (1996).The problem of crime. Published in association with The Open University. Nixon, W. B. Kerr, K. M. (2008). Background screening and investigations: managing hiring risk from the HR and security perspectives. Butterworth-Heinemann. Salinger, L. M. (2005). Encyclopedia of white-collar and corporate crime. SAGE. Read More