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“The fraudster’s greatest liability is the certainty that the fraud is too clever to be detected.”
The Whistleblower Summit and Film Festival (WSFF) stands behind International Fraud Awareness Week in its campaign to end fraud in all working environments, and this year will be the first whistleblower organization to support ACFE’s International Fraud Week in the history of the awareness week.
As an organization who primarily promotes and champions the socially-beneficial actions of whistleblowers worldwide, the WSFF also applauds the tireless efforts of anti-fraud practitioners, particularly whistleblowers who unveil fraudulent activities. We support groups such as the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) in their work to inform the public of detecting and preventing occupational fraud.
International Fraud Awareness Week was established by ACFE in 2000, with this year’s week-long campaign beginning on November 13 to November 19, 2022. To coincide with International Fraud Awareness Week, WSFF offers several crucial anti-fraud research tools which can prove useful for whistleblowers who wish to support claims of fraudulent activities in the workplace.
WHAT IS FRAUD?
The ACFE defines fraud as “an activity that relies on deception in order to achieve a gain.” As officially defined by Black’s Law Dictionary, “fraud becomes a crime when it is a ‘knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another act to his or her detriment.” (ACFE - What is Fraud)
WHISTLEBLOWING AGAINST FRAUD
According to WhistleblowerInfo.com, “Fraud costs taxpayers billions of dollars every year at every level of government. Healthcare fraud impacts Medicare and Medicaid, taking dollars out of those programs that otherwise would go to much-needed medical care.” On a government level, “Fraud by government contractors hits the budgets of federal, state and local agencies, from the Pentagon to city housing departments.” (WhistleblowerInfo.com - What is a Whisteblower)
In order to clamp down on fraud, the U.S. Government, several states, and some cities utilize False Claim statutes which enable citizens to act as whistleblowers and bring forth lawsuits on the government’s behalf. One such statute is the Federal False Claims Act, which provides that “any person who knowingly submits false claims to the government was liable for double the government’s damages, plus a penalty of $2,000 for each false claim.” (Justice.Gov - The False Claims Act).
Under these laws, whistleblowers can receive a significant monetary award for bringing non-public information about fraud to the attention of authorities. To strengthen their cases against fraudsters, governments can rely on whistleblower actions (known as qui tam cases) to better uncover fraudulent schemes and recover ill-gotten tax payer dollars to their treasuries.
Whistleblowers play a pivotal role in assisting the authorities in uncovering illegal fraudulent activity. Whistleblowers.org states that a major audit firm launched a corporate crime survey which concluded, “While professional auditors were only able to detect 19% of the frauds on private corporations, whistleblowers exposed 43%. Executives surveyed estimated that the whistleblowers saved their shareholders billions of dollars.” (Whistleblowers.org - Whistleblowers Still the Best At Detecting Fraud).
Individuals who look to become whistleblowers against fraud are urged to visit and analyze the aforementioned research links and tools before undertaking such actions. It is recommended that would-be fraud whistleblowers consult with attorneys prior to proceeding with your whistleblowing campaigns.
Further information about Fraud Week can be found on https://www.fraudweek.com/.
You can help give more power and voice to whistleblowers by supporting the Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival. You will be helping to highlight civil and human rights violations across the globe. Call us at (870) 543-0024 or email us at mccray.michael@gmail.com.
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