A Real Canadian Expense Fraud Claim
The thought of an employee stealing from their employer is enough to keep any business leader awake at night. And with a study finding that “smaller organizations with fewer than 100 employees accounted for almost 43 per cent of those experiencing fraud losses of $150,000” 1 leaders have reasons to loose sleep.
This in-depth Winnipeg Free Press article by Barbara Bowes sheds light on how employees are committing theft or occupational fraud, “for instance, money orders and expense claims can be altered and/or padded, petty cash can simply disappear, multiple office supplies and various company products drift homeward and sick leave benefits are abused. Sales employees have been known to sell a product and keep the cash, sell products to clients who were not on the company sales records and/or direct payment into their own bank accounts.
Accountants who are dipping their fingers into the till, so to speak, have been known to divert or misappropriate money from office operations into their own bank account or issue cheques to fictitious cost centres or even to a ghost employee, while the money is actually directed into their own bank account. Others have been caught using company funds to pay for personal items such as a cellphone.”2
An Expense Fraud Claim – How Crime Insurance Responds
A privately held company with approximately 900 employees and an estimated $300,000,000 in annual revenues was recently victimized by one of their own.
Related Matters: Risk Management – Top 3 Threats
As part of their ongoing “Control the Outcome” series, Chubb Insurance Company of Canada shares the following example of how their crime coverage is supporting an insured company by responding to an expense fraud claim.
“A sales representative of EFG Company was suspected of expense fraud by the company’s management. The employee in question turned out to be purchasing blocks of airline tickets on his expense account for personal profit and use. Even though EFG Company had a travel expense policy in place, the transactions were not detected immediately. The amount of the loss was approximately $300,000.”3
An ALIGNED advocate can help you select crime coverage for your business that will respond in the event of an expense fraud claim situation.
To learn more about crime insurance, talk to one of our advocates today about how we can help you secure the best products, services and solutions for your business.
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Sources: 1,2 Winnipeg Free Press 3 Chubb Specialty Insurance – Private Company Solutions: Claims Examples
