Is Recession Causing Rise In Financial Crimes?
Massive financial fraud schemes like Bernard Madoff’s multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme may attract lots of headlines. But as the effects of the recession wear on, it’s small-time financial crimes that are thriving, experts say. Crimes such as mortgage fraud, identity theft and, particularly, employee-related schemes appear to be on the rise, according to Orin Snyder, a former federal prosecutor who is now a litigation partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher. “There’s no question that during the past year and a half, companies are reporting as a result of the financial contraction a spike in the kind of low-level, garden-variety frauds that in the aggregate can be very significant to companies: things like credit card fraud, insurance fraud and employee embezzlement,” says Snyder. “We’re also seeing an increase in data breaches and identity theft.” Higher Risk Of Small Fraud? Companies are worried that all these kinds of frauds will continue to increase as the unempl
