Daily Corruption News: Global healthcare fraud costs put at $260 billion; Political corruption heads the list; Annual Report on Embezzlement Released – Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) says that political corruption is the mother of all corruption and is undertaking review of the legislative and institutional reforms that are needed to ensure integrity, transparency and accountability.
BOSTON – (Business Wire) Marquet International Ltd. announced today that it has released The Marquet Report On Embezzlement – its annual study of major embezzlement cases in the United States. The study has some noteworthy findings, including:
The average loss was more than $1 million; the median loss was $386,500.
More than 60 percent of the incidents involved female perpetrators
However, male perpetrators embezzled nearly twice as much as females, on average
40 – 49 year olds caused over 40 percent of all the losses
Nearly 25 percent of all losses were inflicted upon financial institutions
Two-thirds of the incidents were committed by employees who held finance & accounting positions
The average scheme lasted nearly 4½ years
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Your Daily Corruption News team— Monday 18 January 2010
Nigeria: Mismanagement; Audit Report Indicts Presidency, National Assembly, CBN, NNPC etc
Nigeria: Rescued Banks: EFCC seizes Ibru’s 103 properties
Punch
International: Global healthcare fraud costs put at $260 billion
Reuters
Algeria: Algeria launches corruption probe into state oil company
Financial Times
Indonesia: Indonesia Corruption Watch Expects Another Bad Year for Battling Graft
Jakarta Globe
Ireland: Whistleblower protection meeting
Irish Times (TI mention)
Malaysia: Political corruption heads the list
Malaysia Mirror (TI mention)
Morocco: Morocco renews commitment to eradicating corruption
Magharebia
Philippines: Miriam accuses Puno of corruption
Manila Bulletin
Ukraine: No serious violations in Ukraine’s presidential polls – election authorities
The Financial
United States: Annual Report on Embezzlement Released
Earth Times
The Marquet Report On Embezzlement examined 415 major embezzlement cases active in the US in 2009 – those with more than $100,000 in reported losses. “It is amazing that we had a pool of more than 400 cases to examine from 2009, which means that on average, there was a major embezzlement case in the news each and every day last year,” said Christopher T. Marquet, CEO of Marquet International.
Combining the past two years’ analysis leads Marquet to several conclusions:
Women are more likely to embezzle on a large scale than men.
Men embezzle significantly more than women per scheme.
Perpetrators typically begin their embezzlement schemes in their early 40s.
By a significant margin, embezzlers are most likely to be individuals who hold financial positions within organizations.
The Financial Services industry suffers the greatest losses from major embezzlements.
Gambling is a clear motivating factor in driving some major embezzlements.
Major embezzlers have a prior criminal history in less than 10 percent of the cases
“While major embezzlers continue to more likely be women, men still steal a lot more, on average. It is also interesting to note that these schemes last 4½ years on average, which is quite a long time for a fraud to be perpetrated under the noses of company management,” said Marquet.
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LONDON (Reuters) – Some 180 billion euros ($260 bln) is lost globally every year to fraud and error in healthcare — enough to quadruple the World Health Organisation’s and UNICEF’s budgets and control malaria in Africa, experts said on Monday.
HEALTH
A study by the European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Network (EHFCN) and the Center for Counter Fraud Services (CCFS) at Britain’s Portsmouth University found that 5.59 percent of annual global health spending is lost to mistakes or corruption.
“Every euro lost to fraud or corruption means that someone, somewhere is not getting the treatment that they need,” said Paul Vincke, EHFCN’s president and one of the report’s authors.
“They are ill for longer, and in some cases they simply die unnecessarily. Make no mistake — healthcare fraud is a killer.”
The report reviewed 69 exercises in 33 organizations in six countries to measure healthcare fraud and error losses.
The combined expenditure assessed was more than 300 billion pounds ($490 bln) and the experts extrapolated their findings from Britain, the United States, New Zealand, France, Belgium and the Netherlands to get a global picture.
Data from developing nations would not have changed the global figure, the authors said, but were hard to come by, since the study included only exercises based on statistically valid samples with measurable levels of accuracy.
The report found evidence for many different types of fraud, from pharmacists dividing prescriptions into small packages to claim extra fees, to drug companies organizing price cartels, to doctors over claiming travel costs and abusing government grants, to patients making fraudulent insurance claims.
Two doctors were found to have claimed a government improvement grant for their clinic which they then spent on setting up a car import-export business.
RANGE OF SCAMS
A Thomson Reuters report published last October found that the U.S. healthcare system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion every year, with around 22 percent of that going on fraudulent insurance, kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services and other scams.
The World Health Organization’s latest estimate of global healthcare expenditure was $4.7 trillion (3.3 trillion euros). The fraud report’s 260 billion loss figure is based on an average of 5.59 percent of spending being lost to fraud.
Jim Gee, chair of the CCFS, said Monday’s report proved it was possible to measure the nature and extent of losses to fraud and error, and this was vital to tackling the issue.
“It may be embarrassing for some organizations to find out just how much they are losing,” he said in the report.
“Because of the direct, negative impact on human life of losses to fraud, it is never easy to admit they take place.”
But Gee said the first step to combating fraud was for governments and institutions to stop “being in denial” about it.
“If an organization is not aware of the extent or nature of its problem, then how can it apply the right solution?”
The European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Network (EHFCN) was set up to help the region’s healthcare organizations find and cut losses on fraud and error so that more money could be better spent on patient care.
Similar networks exist in the United States and Canada.
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A copy of The Marquet Report On Embezzlement can be obtained by calling (917) 733-1038 or e-mailing a request to info@marquetinternational.com. Marquet International also publishes a white collar crime blog at http://fraudtalk.blogspot.com which chronicles a variety of active white collar crime cases in the news. For more information about the firm, go to www.marquetinternational.com.
About Marquet international Ltd.
Marquet International is a boutique corporate investigations, due diligence, litigation support and security consulting firm based in Boston. The firm focuses on assisting clients in developing strategic intelligence to make sound business decisions. Led by long-time industry veteran, Christopher T. Marquet, the firm provides Corporate Intelligence & Due Diligence services in corporate transactions and to vet key personnel. It also provides Litigation Support and Corporate Investigations services on behalf of general counsel and law firms representing clients in matters involving fraud and employee misconduct, intellectual property disputes, hostile takeovers, asset recovery, electronic evidence and forensic accounting.
Marquet International Ltd.
Karen White, 917-733-1038