CHAPTER 11Middle East and North Africa

REGIONAL FRAUD TRENDS

The 2018 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse issued by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) includes 101 cases from the Middle East and North Africa that were investigated between January 2016 and October 2017. These cases caused a median loss of US $200,000 per case.

As noted in Exhibit 11.1, corruption is the most common form of occupational fraud committed in the Middle East and North Africa; 49% of the cases analyzed involved some form of corruption, which is more than twice as frequent as any other type of fraud scheme. Theft of cash on hand is the second most common category of occupational fraud, occurring in 23% of the cases in the region. In addition, fraud schemes in the Middle East and North Africa are almost twice as likely to be detected by a tip as by any other means (see Exhibit 11.2).

Bar graph shows corruption, cash on hand, noncash, cash larceny, billing, skimming, expense reimbursements, check and payment tampering, payroll, financial statement fraud, and register disbursements where corruption is highest at 49 percent and register disbursements is lowest at 2 percent.

Exhibit 11.1 Scheme Types – Middle East and North Africa

Bar graph shows tip, internal audit, management review, other, account reconciliation, surveillance/monitoring, notification by law enforcement, external audit, document examination, and by accident where tip is highest at 38 percent.

Exhibit 11.2 Initial Detection Method – Middle East and North Africa

The 2018 Report to the Nations also examines the anti-fraud controls that were present at victim organizations at the time the frauds being analyzed ...

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