The distinguishing feature of defrauders is that they are normal people who have been pressured into committing fraud. Family or social pressure to maintain a lifestyle People convicted of fraud do not see themselves as criminals. They often claim they were only borrowing the money or taking money that was rightfully theirs. Some criminal behaviour is linked to culture. This is a reasonable assumption in individualistic cultures such as USA and Australia.
Collusion is more likely in collectivist cultures such as Indonesia and Malaysia.
Collectivist cultures place a greater emphasis on trust and loyalty. Instead of separating control of assets and record keeping, companies in collectivist cultures are likely to assign both these duties to the same trusted person. Assigning authorisations to positions rather to people assumes low power distance. Low power distance occurs in USA and Australia. Internal Controls in Multinational Companies Internal control in multinational companies poses additional problems.