Slicing the salami: small‐dollar recurring fraud

Abstract

While the major “eye‐popping,” headline‐grabbing financial statement frauds have captured the attention of the investing public in recent years, little heed has been given to the smaller‐dollar, more repetitive frauds that occur in organizations year in and year out ‐ misappropriation of an entity’s assets, repeated during any given accounting period (e.g., month/year) in an amount insufficient to be detected by the entity’s system of internal controls. The purpose of this article is to examine the factors that allow fraud to flourish at a low level, or “under the radar” of internal controls; describe some of the more common schemes that occur; and propose responses that management can implement to prevent fraud from occurring in the future.

Citation

Zweighaft, D. (2004), "Slicing the salami: small‐dollar recurring fraud", Journal of Investment Compliance, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 138-142. https://doi.org/10.1108/15285810410636262