When headlines blast that someone has been caught embezzling money from their employer, many think that it is an anomaly in the business world. The truth is that while it should be something that doesn’t happen at all, it’s actually more common than people realize. According to one report, small businesses are at the highest risk. Most employees complicit in fraud, theft, forgery, and other illicit acts resulting in huge consequences for the company are smart enough to cover their tracks and escape the monitoring eye of surveillance cameras (where installed). In situations where employees work to defraud their employers by embezzling funds, discovering the fraud and identifying the culprits may be quite difficult. Only the intervention of a private investigator can solve the issue while also saving the reputation of the company from being damaged. Corporations and businesses will always need the help of corporate investigators.
Investigators who specialize in this type of work can be incredibly valuable in preventing and catching these types of criminals. To introduce you, a corporate investigation is an investigation of a corporation, organization, or enterprise to detect illegal actions/activities performed by members of the corporation's staff or third parties that could harm the company, thus ensuring the effective management of the organization's work process. Let’s explain some of the scenarios in which our corporate investigators have been helpful.
Sexual harassment
One of the reasons why the organization hires a corporate investigator is to eradicate sexual harassment. Sexual harassment can be defined as any form of unwanted, unwanted, and unwanted sexual behavior or misconduct committed by an individual to another person verbally through sexually offensive language, seeking sexual gratification, or physically through direct contact. According to research on sexual violence, 55% of women say they experience sexual harassment in the workplace. Most of this sexual harassment is committed by a superior younger colleague either by subtly seeking sexual gratification or by making sexual comments on individual behavior, sexually suggestive behavior, or complete unwanted progress. Although some companies have a policy of sexual harassment, very few of them apply it, and sexual harassment in the workplace still goes unchecked.
Because a culture of silence still prevails even in today’s society, more than 85% of victims of sexual harassment in the workplace do not report it. This can disrupt employees' attitudes towards work: reduced productivity levels, disrupt jobs, and in more serious cases can lead to employees neglecting their jobs or leaving the organization. In cases where the level of productivity of employed women is low or they constantly resign without good reason, the help of a corporate investigator is helpful in helping to identify such culprits and put an end to such inappropriate actions in the organization.
Employee theft
Employee theft, regardless of how big or small the item is stolen, can cripple a company's finances either rapidly or in the long run. It could involve a manager, a supervisor, or other superiors with or without the help of other employees. Staff members of an organization may steal large amounts of money, company items or equipment, and in extreme instances, intellectual property of the company. In some cases, employees may work in collaboration with the accounts officers to cover up their tracks. Some organizations use CCTV surveillance to catch such activity on camera but, in situations where the staff member(s) is working hand-in-hand with the security person, such footage may be deleted. Employee theft can leave a devastating effect on an organization's finances and the organization itself. Hiring the services of a corporate investigator will help the organization detect and curb employee theft and identify culprits. Our team of investigators also includes experts to monitor and interview subjects so they can detect responsible parties with or without the help of security camera footage.
Fraudulent activities
Fraud activity is one of the major reasons that corporate organizations and businesses go bankrupt or eventually fold up. Even though it is rife, very few companies take precautions in preventing it from getting to the extreme. Examples of some types of fraud activity in an organization include:
Misappropriation of assets
Misappropriation of assets includes tampering with financial statements, cheque forgery, inflating expenses incurred, forging receipts, increasing account figures, signature forgery, defalcation (also known as skimming in which sales made are not recorded and the money is pocketed into the salesperson's hand), inventory theft (where the money is either diverted to another account not belonging to the company or is physically stolen), or theft of service where an employee uses the company's services for his own interest.
Vendor fraud
Vendor fraud happens when an employee of an organization enters into an alliance with vendors used by the organization to defraud the organization. This happens in different ways. Staff members can ask a vendor to overbill an organization for shipping and waybill costs. Bribery also happens when an agreement is made between the employee and the vendor for the vendor to pay some amount of money in exchange for a service that the company renders without the company’s knowledge.
Accounting fraud
Another type of fraud that happens is accounting fraud. Accounting fraud usually involves the participation of an employee or an accountant to mislead an organization. Instances where accounting fraud could happen include when staff members set up a fake supplier and make the company pay for nonexistent goods and services. It could also happen when an employee conspires with a supplier to bill the company for twice the amount of goods and services supplied. Losses are incurred and debts are piled up as a result of fraudulent activities in an organization thus, the company’s finances suffer the consequences. Plans to expand the company are put on hold and there is a struggle to pay salaries. In a situation where staff members involved have sworn to secrecy, fraud activity in an organization can continue for a long time without the root cause being detected. This is where the help of a private investigator is enlisted to thoroughly investigate the root cause of such activities.
That is why it is necessary to hire "impartial guards" in time, that is. our team of corporate investigators so that they can catch the perpetrators of corporate fraud and misconduct as soon as possible, but they can also help prevent something like this from happening.
The investigator could check the suspected staff member, conduct a thorough investigation and conduct financial investigations to detect fraud, bribery, manipulation of accounts, etc. Investigators can also assist in surveillance, technical oversight (debugging), and computer forensic medicine investigations. Our team of corporate investigators also specializes in undercover operations where the investigator is given a false job as an employee, interfering with them in order to uncover hidden activities.
Moreover, the Private Investigator Switzerland team also specializes in corporate investigations, where they can assist in due diligence investigations, which are important to conduct before a company is bought, bought, or goes through a merger. These types of investigations help ensure that the secondary company or new business owner does not enter into a deal with a company that would pose a serious liability. The negative impact that fraud can have on business is tangible. The company's reputation can be damaged or at least significantly damaged. Companies that were victims of embezzlement lost much more than money: they lost customers, had more difficulty attracting new customers, and lost business partners. They admitted that the "D" embezzlement negatively affected the
company's reputation.
A corporate investigator can help save a company from going bankrupt or closing altogether. It's always a good idea to invest in the corporate investigation as it might save your company money and its reputation. Make an appointment on time!
Private Investigator Switzerland
Schaffhauserstrasse 550., Postfach,
CH-8050 Zürich
Switzerland