Fraud, company culture and loss of face

Even the well-intentioned and loyal employee can be suborned and drawn into systematic fraud. Charles Cawley examines how a concern to do the right thing and to maintain standing with peers as well as individual greed can harm and even destroy a company.

It is often assumed that fraudsters by definition must have some unpleasant motivation and consequently will carry about them some evident taint of corruption. Features might include greed, drug taking, family problems and so on. This approach can lead to misunderstanding of the nature of fraud, leaving many problems unaddressed and so unsolved. This article will reveal something most would prefer not to consider, either because they are implicated or because they have come uncomfortably close to being dragged into fraudulent activity by one of the murkier aspects of “corporate culture”. As with most sad tales, it begins innocently.