BBC reports on 3/6 that Oxfam ex-fraud chief admits defrauding charity.
Oxfam, a development charity in England, has revenue of £385.5M (~$645M) in 2012.
The charity’s head of the counter-fraud department pled guilty to embezzling about £62.6K (~US$105K) and will be sentenced May 16.
His scheme?
He formed several false companies and submitted fake bills to the charity for services rendered by the companies, according to the article.
The scheme apparently ran from February through December of 2011. Article doesn’t explain why that is the end of the scheme.
His legal counsel says he had an addiction to prescription pain medicines and his marriage was falling apart. The counsel also says, according to the article, he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in January 2013.
Thoughts for auditors
The fraud scheme was creation of fake companies (more than one), preparing & submitting fake invoices, and approving them for payment. Didn’t see what the invoices were for, but I’ll guess they billed for professional services.
The brief article gives sufficient coverage to ask a few questions.
Where do you see the three sides of the fraud triangle?
Would you have picked up on that?
What routine procedures in your audits would have detected this fraud scheme?
Answers for non-auditors
Fraud triangle can be seen:
- Opportunity – he had authority to approve invoices. Probably had sufficient authority to approve payments for services that would not be visible to anyone in the accounting function.
- Motivation – Drug addiction. Possibly trying to salvage his marriage by spending money on nice things.
- Rationalization – “I wanna fix” would be sufficient. The addiction or horrible pain of his disintegrating marriage could easily overwhelm any restraint against thinking fraud was wrong.
Assume the invoices actually looked like real invoices, with printed letterhead, professional logo, and legit mailing address. What procedures would reveal that fake invoices from a fake company with a real address and bona-fide approval by an authorized manager are actual fraudulent?
I don’t know.