It used to be that the worst that would happen is that someone would fiddle their expenses. But now the odds of big-loss frauds are higher than ever before. And since the Asian Crisis, corporate fraud cases have soared. Its sister agency, the Commercial Crimes Bureau of the Hong Kong Police reported a one-third jump in the number of serious fraud cases a year after the crisis. Much of the increase is due to the economic crisis.
Management tends to become more attentive to the small details on a company's books.
Besides which, there are all those disgruntled employees and outside suppliers who have either been laid off or lost out on contracts. The vast majority of cases come to light from whistleblowers, usually in the form of an anonymous letter or fax. Before the Asian Crisis, we were doing things like due diligence and background checks. After the Asian Crisis we have been a lot more involved in fraud investigations. With the collapse, people are taking a closer look at their accounts.