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This article aims to focus on the impact of the current austerity measures on UK public sector anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resource capacity building initiative developed over the years to tackle fraud against the public purse.

The article draws on secondary sources of data and available literature on fraud and financial crime.

Fraud is a challenge in the UK public sector but the cut-back on anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resources, given the scale of public sector fraud, the growing emphasis on accountability and the time of austerity with public money more exposed to fraud is arguably a back-door/u-turn policy on zero-tolerance approach in tackling public sector fraud and financial crime. There is the potential of this encouraging more fraud and financial crime against the public sector in the long term if measures are not taken to devise strategies for enhancing anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resource capacity.

The research implication for this article is that it opens an avenue for future studies to examine post austerity strategies for strengthening public sector anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resource strategies to deal with emerging fraud threats to UK public sector.

This article acts as a reference guide for policymakers to reflect on the long-term adverse impact of the austerity on anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resource capacity and capability in tackling fraud public sector fraud.

The paper attempts to present an alternative lens to examining the scale of UK public sector fraud problem rather than relying on headline story of declining fraud in UK.

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 need for independent audit goes back to the agency theory, the theory of delegation of power and the issue of trust. Stakeholders delegate power to management to manage the business on their behalf, yet they face the risk of information asymmetry and management motivations to commit fraud. The main aim of having an independent auditor was therefore to reduce the risk of information asymmetry and fraudulent behaviour by management. Auditors are required by the International Auditing Standards to detect material fraud and error, and they are expected to have a duty of care for stakeholders. However, recently independent auditors, whether conducting private or public audit, have been scrutinised for failing to detect material fraud. There have been a lot of discussions in the literature about the role of private auditors in detecting fraud, but very little discussions about the role of public auditors in detecting fraud. This chapter will outline the difference between private audit and public audit; explain the legal liability of public auditors in relation to fraud detection; the role of public auditors in detecting fraud; and will critically review the root causes for auditors’ failure to detect fraud.

The purpose of this paper is to research how local councils in England responded to a national initiative intended to address the risk of the involvement of organised crime in local government procurement fraud. In so doing, it considers definitional issues before undertaking original research to explore how councils responded and, through in-depth interviews with three councils, what initial explanations may explain the responses. It concludes that the national initiative was insufficiently thought-through, and that councils’ responses were significantly influenced by the relevance of the threat of organised crime, financial constraints and competing priorities.

The case study involves a literature review, an analysis of official documentation, a questionnaire to local councils in the north of England and semi-structured interviews with anti-fraud practitioners in three councils in the northeast of England. The approach is to provide an analysis of the implementation of a national initiative to promote a local government response to procurement fraud by organised crime.

On the basis of original research, the paper proposes that the national initiative was insufficiently thought-through, and that councils’ responses were influenced by the relevance of the threat of organised crime, financial constraints and competing priorities.

The research looks at a national initiative and how local councils responded within the context of financial and other constraints. The research is limited in terms of the range of responses it sought, and that it only studied the experience of three local councils in detail. On the other hand, its findings support further research into the implementation of national initiatives in terms of practice on the ground.

The findings identify issues surrounding the design and implementation of national anti-fraud policies from the perspective of local government and will be of value to practitioners and academics interested in fraud, policing, organised crime, local government and policy making.

The paper is the first study in the UK on the local implementation of national strategies on procurement fraud and organised crime and raises positive and less-positive aspects of how far national strategies and intentions are addressed on the ground, with a focus on what factors may influence local implementation.

This chapter examines four possible relationships between the credit crunch and corporate crime. A first relation is that cases of accounting fraud have contributed to the causes of the crisis. Because of these accounting scandals, the trust in large corporations and the financial sector possibly eroded. A second possible relation is the reverse: the crisis leads to more corporate crime. As a result of the crisis, companies run into financial difficulties. In their despair, they possibly cut costs by not complying with business regulations, or they may try to gain illegal profit through fraud. The third relation is the criminalization of more unethical corporate behavior. The moral outrage regarding the behavior of banks and insurance companies that contributed to the crisis might lead to an increased labeling of “risky” or “greedy” behavior of corporate executives as criminal. This results in more legal regulation. The fourth and final relation is that these amplification effects will lead to the discovery of more corporate crime.

The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic approach to classify financial crime into main categories as well as sub categories.

Based on a literature review, the main four categories were labeled corruption, fraud, theft, and manipulation, respectively.

There is a massive variety of crime types and crime names in the literature that can successfully be allocated to main categories of financial crime.

The paper is based on exploratory research to stimulate future research in refining and improving the categories suggested here.

The great variety of criminal activities is classified in this paper so that practitioners can organize their thinking around crime themes rather than crime examples when mapping crime.

The public and society at large will be able to understand the confusing variety of financial crime in terms of main categories.

There has been some confusion among both researchers and practitioners when communicating about examples of financial crime. The organizing framework in this paper will help allocate crime examples to main categories of financial crime.

Financial crimes involve several offenses without violence with some people obtaining financial benefit and causing financial loss to some others. The globalization of financial systems, the growing volume of trading transactions, and the acceleration of information technologies have brought many conveniences to the financial world; but unfortunately, financial crime has spread and diversified. Therefore, the fight against financial crimes, which are often complex and organized in a way which is nonviolent but causes significant financial damage to people and organizations, is gaining importance. In this sense, the struggle against this type of crime, which has become a serious threat, must be resolved by applying a comprehensive policy that should include all segments of the society.

In this chapter, we aim to give a general framework of financial crimes and carry out a literature review on the subject. Moreover, we outline the different types of financial crime (such as money laundering, insider dealing, fraud, market abuse, bribery, corruption, terrorist financing, white collar crimes, tax evasion, embezzlement, forgery, counterfeiting, identity theft, etc.) and their impact. As a result, this study has the purpose of providing awareness by drawing attention to the concept of financial crime, which is an important threat nowadays that an ordinary person may suffer at any time in daily life.

This paper aims to explore the challenges faced in combating fraudulent practices in the Nigerian public sector.

This paper is essentially the result of primary data of in-depth semi-structured interviews. An in-depth interview was conducted with 14 respondents comprises (4) auditors, (4) accountants, (2) legal practitioners, (2) staff of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and (2) staff of the Federal Inland Revenue Service. The interviews data collected were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach.

This study found that among the challenges to combat fraudulent practices in the Nigerian public sector is first the prevalence of Godfatherism in the Nigerian public sector. Godfatherism offers selective judgment, lack of agencies autonomous and the party system which remains a challenge. Second, the issue of political immunity undermines public governance which illustrates an exemption of punishment, constitutional protections and the political environment are some major challenges faced in preventing fraud in the Nigerian public sector.

This study, therefore, offers an important platform to Nigerian anti-graft bodies such as the “EFFC,” “Independent Corrupt Practices Commission” (ICPC) and “Code of Conduct Bureau” (CCB). Thus, it perhaps eases the way of combating fraudulent practices in Nigeria.

This paper is original and unique in its form and has value to anti-graft bodies and practitioners in the Nigerian public sector, private sector other African economies and academics.

The FSA Financial Crime Sector Leader, Philip Robinson, outlined the FSA's new policy on fraud within the regulated sector in his October 2004 speech. The FSA subsequently undertook a review of 16 regulated firms and how to prevent and detect fraud. This paper considers the findings of the FSA's Firm's High‐Level Management of Fraud Risk Report and the reference to financial crime in the FSA's recent Financial Risk Outlook 2006 and Business Plan 2005/2006.

The topic has been approached to consider the development of the FSA's policy on fraud with reference to speeches and policy documents.

That financial crime is a significant threat to the financial services sector. Firms have taken proactive steps to tackie fraud, but more can be done. The 2006 may see greater focus by the FSA on firms' anti‐fraud measures.

In examining the FSA's policy on anti‐fraud management this papers seek identify what the FSA requires from firms in terms of anti‐fraud measures. This paper should be of interest to compliance officers, MLRO Officers, fraud investigators and regulatory lawyers.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has already proven to be one of the world’s deadliest crises in modern history with far-reaching impacts on different sectors of the global economy. The financial sector is among the most widely affected by the economic crisis occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most notable effects is related to financial crime. It is against this backdrop that the present study aimed to examine the impact of COVID-19 on financial institutions with the main focus being on financial crime

Its twofold objectives were to critically examine the global emerging patterns of financial crime and their association with the COVID-19 pandemic; and to investigate how financial institutions across the world have been responding to, managing, and dealing with the emerging patterns of financial crime brought about by (or linked to) the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was found out that as the pandemic ravages the world and pushes people and businesses to the very limits of their endurance, many financial sector stakeholders and players are responding in ways that put the entire financial sector and all its stakeholders at great risk. Specifically, COVID-19 pandemic has led to the emergence of new patterns of financial crime that were either unheard of or were not as rampant in the past.

Both the descriptive and correlation analyses produced by this study provide new insights into the impact of COVID-19 on financial institutions with a main focus on financial crime.