Catch Me If You Can

Abstract

Financial crime, often referred to as “white-collar” crime, is a severe issue all around the world. A recent FBI survey found that in the preceding twelve months, approximately one in every four United States citizens had fallen victim to financial crime in one form or another (fraud, money laundering, internal embezzlement, impersonation, forgery, blackmail, theft, etc.). The extent of financial crime in financial services companies over the past decade is (very cautiously) estimated at $100,000,000,000. In Israel, bank and insurance fraud has amounted to 1,000,000,000 ILS over the last ten years. In addition to the enormous reduction in profits, financial crimes in general and internal embezzlement in particular can have a dramatic impact on business organizations, and pose a threat to the continued existence of the organizations they affect. Despite the importance given to the matter by law enforcement agencies, crimes either remain undiscovered or are only discovered too late. Thus, business entities cannot rely upon the police for protection, and, for their own survival, must therefore undertake serious measures to combat financial crime themselves. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on the fight against financial crime, which has undergone significant progress in recent years due to technological developments. This will be done without exposing the full range of methods employed against financial crime.