Bucharest, December 15, 2021 - The average time to identify fraud in Romanian companies is more than 1 year from the time of its perpetration, according to an analysis by Corporate Intelligence Agency, a risk management company dedicated to the business environment, in line with the ACFE (Association for Certified Fraud Examiners) report, which estimates this period at 14 months worldwide.

On the other hand, according to the Romanian Labor Code, employers have only 6 months to apply any disciplinary sanction, including dismissal, after which the period of limitation expires.

In this context, the implementation of fraud prevention measures in companies, together with profiling interviews for employees to determine their propensity to commit fraud, can be some of the most important measures to limit internal fraud in companies.

These are just some of the conclusions of the second edition of the event "Annual Fraud Conference - Fraud Trends and Current Challenges" organized by the law firm Noerr, in partnership with Corporate Intelligence Agency.

This year's edition focused in particular on the current challenges of internal corporate fraud, cyber fraud, the situations faced by investment funds in terms of fraud potential, profiling and HUMINT, as well as the risks of tax and financial fraud.

"Organizations, regardless of their size and industry, need to treat internal fraud seriously and go beyond framing fraud at normal operational costs, avoiding the inefficient situation of reactive action and directing generous budgets towards reactive measures instead of more effective prevention strategies"says Gabriel Zgunea, CEO Corporate Intelligence Agency, noting that company management often does not even know how to react in such a situation and prefers to overlook fraud cases, while thinking about the potential damage to their image that could result from exposing fraud.

"Once a situation of this kind is detected, or if there are suspicions of fraud, companies must turn to firms specialized in fraud investigation, to law firms that can solve this type of problem, provide advice and take action on the measures imposed to limit the damage, identify those involved in fraud, to assess and order measures to limit the company's legal liability"says Alexandru Ene-Drăgan, Partner, Head of Compliance & Litigation, Noerr.

In order to prevent and detect fraud, companies also need to invest in specialized staff with skills in improving compliance and data security systems and IT systems. A minimum increase of around 301TPTP3T in the budget dedicated to this aspect may be sufficient to limit the potential for internal fraud in organizations.

At the same time, the area of profiling, which involves profiling employees to determine their propensity to fraud, to detect simulated behavior, paraverbal indicators, to find out more information about employees, their skills, motivations and character, is gaining increasing interest from companies, whose managers realize the benefits of such a tool. And with fraud cases on the rise, experts recommend using such resources right from the recruitment stage.

Another important conclusion of this year's conference is the need to develop and implement clear procedures to deter fraud from the prevention phase, to react quickly when companies face internal fraud, but also to train their own employees on what they should do if they observe non-compliant situations or have information about fraud schemes in the companies where they work.

Sustained assessment, prevention, identification and anti-fraud activities carried out by specialized companies can ensure the elimination of vulnerabilities and minimize losses by up to 95%, thus contributing strategically to the sustainable development of the businesses of those who use these types of services.

About Corporate Intelligence Agency

Corporate Intelligence Agency is a risk management company dedicated exclusively to the business environment, specialized in identifying potential vulnerabilities, risks or business opportunities of the companies that use its services.

Corporate Intelligence Agency offers premium solutions in Applied Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence and Risk Management, using the latest tools and technologies, along with the dynamism, creativity, and especially the very high level of expertise in the intelligence field of the experts in our team.

Corporate Intelligence Agency services are addressed to all companies and corporations that understand the importance of using professionals to generate reliable information that can inform decision-making processes, providing knowledge on socio-political phenomena or conjunctures, markets or situations of interest, as well as reducing risks or vulnerabilities in areas that may affect the company's economic and reputational interests.