Group Fraud: What Pushes People over the Line?

Researchers from the CPA Centre for Governance and Accountability (now the CPA Ontario Centre for Corporate Reporting and Professionalism) interviewed white-collar criminals convicted for fraud in US prisons. Their analysis of 38 stories of group fraud compared the experiences and motivations of convicted fraudsters with those of people who had resisted the pressure to commit fraud.

So, what makes or breaks a fraudster?

Delving into the social nature of fraudulent behaviour, the researchers discovered that an organization’s culture was the single most influential factor that pushed people toward fraud.