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Illicit financial flows are targeted by the United Nations’ (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, these illicit flows are not entirely understood. Furthermore, they can benefit from economic norms, laws and regulations that lack mechanisms to detect and penalize them. This paper aims to investigate whether a recent test, the embezzler test, can be used to identify regulatory architectures that facilitate illicit financial flows and related financial crimes.

This paper develops a more advanced version of the embezzler test in terms of definitions and practical implementation methodology.

In this test, the definition of embezzlement can be understood to be the occurrence of illicit financial flows crossing the boundaries of organizations and/or countries. This is a multistage test, which intentionally simulates illicit financial flows to observe how well equipped is the regulatory architecture to deal with other financial offences that are related with these flows, such as theft, money laundering, fraud, corruption, market manipulation and tax evasion.

Future research can use the version of this test to stress test a large range of economic norms, laws and regulations.

This test’s new version can assist achieve the UN SDGs’ illicit financial flow reduction target. Furthermore, it can be used to study both existing and proposed norms, laws and regulation.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first explicit test that has been presented to identify norms, laws and regulations that facilitate illicit financial flows and related financial crimes.

The purpose of this study is to address the question that economic standards, norms and regulations can possess weak spots that might be exploitable for the embezzlement of an organization’s assets with resultant material consequences in money laundering,tax evasion, fraud, corruption and other potential financial crimes.

The author’s methodological approach is to introduce and discuss a new logical-deductive test that the author names “embezzler test”. The author’s test investigates regulatory architectures from the perspective of someone attempting to divert assets from or to an organization. It appraises whether a potential embezzler could divert resources without being detected and sanctioned.

The embezzler test can be applied to a broad range of standards, norms and regulations.

This new test can be improved and further calibrated in future research.

Researchers, regulators and law makers can use the new test to identify and eventually fix weak spots for embezzlement in norms, standards and regulations.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, such a test has never been formulated or applied before to identify weak spots for potential embezzlement in regulatory architectures.

Cressey’s Fraud Triangle has been referenced in 8,584 studies and academic papers [1] and is a stalwart of training courses for accounting and audit practitioners and fraud investigators. The Fraud Triangle has endured for three decades in the academic and practitioner worlds. This study aims to explore the origins of Cressey’s Fraud Triangle and challenge its practical value to a fraud investigator.

This study has developed from analysis of a targeted literature review carried out as part of a wider study into occupational fraud and corruption.

Cressey’s name is intrinsically linked to the Fraud Triangle, although he never used the expression during his lifetime. Two of the three motivational factors identified by Cressey (1953) were developed from the earlier work of Svend Riemer (1941), who it is suggested should have equal billing with Donald Cressey for the concepts that led to the creation of the Fraud Triangle.

The paper illustrates the limitations of Cressey’s Fraud Triangle for practitioners.

Many academics and researchers have either misunderstood Cressey’s role in the development of the Fraud Triangle or been unaware of its true origins. Although the pioneering work of Riemer is referenced in a 2014 study on the Fraud Triangle by Alexander Schuchter and Michael Levi, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to identify the influence of Riemer on Cressey’s thinking and the development of the Fraud Triangle.

This paper aims to understand the involvement of women in white-collar crime (WCC) also referred to as pink-collar crimes. WCC is present around the globe and has created a word for itself.

The paper is designed by studying the WCC in the area of Iran, Portugal, Norway, India and the USA.

The paper attempts to move beyond the traditional perspectives of emancipation versus focal concern, which argue that less inequality will increase women involvement in WCC versus women socializing into accepting responsibilities for social concerns by caring for others.

As the data is restricted, this study is based on the limited data available on the internet.

This paper is an original work of the authors.

This paper examines the role of professional associations, governmental agencies, and international accounting and auditing bodies in promulgating standards to deter and detect fraud, domestically and abroad. Specifically, it focuses on the role played by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the US Government Accounting Office (GAO), and other national and foreign professional associations, in promulgating auditing standards and procedures to prevent fraud in financial statements and other white‐collar crimes. It also examines several fraud cases and the impact of management and employee fraud on the various business sectors such as insurance, banking, health care, and manufacturing, as well as the role of management, the boards of directors, the audit committees, auditors, and fraud examiners and their liability in the fraud prevention and investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the financial expertise of the audit committee (AC) and the incidence of misappropriation of assets in publicly held companies in the USA.

The sample consists of 28 publicly held companies in the USA experiencing misappropriation of assets from 1987 to 1998, as well as 28 control companies matched according to size, industry, and time period. The effectiveness of the AC's financial expertise in reducing the occurrence of misappropriation of assets is examined by logistic models using two specific types of financial expertise: accounting and non‐accounting financial expertise.

The results support the notion that an independent AC member is only effective in reducing the occurrence of misappropriation of assets in publicly held companies if he/she is also a financial expert.

The paper contributes to the debate on the appropriate definition of “financial expert” and the efficacy of the financial expertise of AC members – as defined by the Sarbanes‐Oxley legislation – in reducing the incidence of misappropriation of assets in publicly held companies in the USA. The paper includes only 28 cases of misappropriation of assets by employees involving collusion with an outsider, as discovered and reported in the news (i.e. newsworthy cases).

While previous studies have drawn attention to the relationship between AC independence and misappropriation of assets, there is no empirical evidence to support or to refute the hypothesis that financial expertise has an impact on the occurrence of misappropriation of assets. This paper is the first to examine the association between the effectiveness of the AC and the occurrence of misappropriation of assets by testing the interaction between AC members' financial expertise and their independence.

The purpose of this paper is to examine notable instances of fraud that have occurred in Southeastern Connecticut and surrounding areas since the development of two large casinos in that region.

Fraud case histories and prosecutions in which the gambling actions of individuals provided the incentive or pressure for the fraud to occur are examined.

A number of employees who work in business and government have stolen significant sums of money to support gambling activities. The cases are linked to the growth of casino gambling and an accompanying increase in pathological and problem gambling; which research indicates doubles within 50 miles of a casino. Consistent with prior research, most of the thefts were not discovered by auditors or management in a timely manner.

This paper examines the impact of fraud due to casino gambling in one region, further research will examine other regions. One limitation in the research process is the reluctance of businesses to report instances of fraud, thus resulting in an underreporting of the extent of the problem.

The paper recommends actions to be taken by managers in casino areas that can prevent employees from committing such fraud. These actions include the establishment of internal audit procedures, use of an external auditor for specific internal control tasks, upper management review of certain key business documents, increased accountability for organizational check registers, improved control for incoming cash receipts, and fraud awareness training.

Managers in casino regions that become aware of the risks and employ the recommended measures may prevent and minimize business fraud.

Casino gambling in the United States has increased significantly in the last 30 years, going from just 2 states (Nevada and New Jersey) in 1988 to 41 states with over 980 casinos. This rapid growth of casino gambling has resulted in additional social costs, including workplace embezzlements committed by problem gamblers. Embezzlements contribute to greater fraud risk for organizations in casino regions and are expected to rise as casinos multiply and increasingly cater to convenience gamblers. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the proximity of casinos as a fraud risk factor for embezzlement. The authors recommend that internal and external auditors for companies located in casino areas assess this fraud risk and where appropriate, perform audit procedures to address this risk. There is also an opportunity for external auditors to assist those companies located in casino regions (that may lack internal auditors) in establishing fraud prevention programs.

This study explores the effects of fraud triangle behaviors (pressure, opportunities, and rationalization) on students’ self-reported propensity to cheat in class. We found each fraud triangle factor to be an influence on the students’ propensity to cheat. Additionally, we observed a statistically significant three-way interactive effect indicating that all three factors jointly influence the students’ propensity to cheat. These findings provide insights for accounting educators concerned with preventing classroom cheating. They also confirm the call by Statement on Auditing Standards No. 99 for auditor focus on fraud triangle variables. This exploratory study also suggests that future research is needed to examine the interactive effects of personality characteristics with fraud triangle factors to better understand student cheating behaviors.

Program review, or program audit, is becoming an accepted technique in computer auditing. This paper describes the technique and examines whether it has a legitimate role in both external and internal audit work. A program review methodology is suggested and user experience is reported and analysed. It is suggested that internal auditors in particular may value program review and are relatively well placed to exploit it.