Campus

Management Boards less guilty

Over the last two years, white-collar crime has affected one in three companies, and one in two of the large ones with a turnover in excess of three thousand million Euros These include theft and embezzlement that according to a study has a 63 percent frequency rate, fraud and disloyalty (54 per cent), data theft, corruption, breach of anti-trust rules and money laundering. Furthermore, 85% of companies questioned considered that their protection against white-collar crime was good, or even very good. A recent survey by KPMG revealed that economic crime will cost German society some 80 thousand million Euros this current year, with most damage in anti-trust offences. The survey, carried out on behalf of KPMG by TNS Emnid involved over 400 representative companies in Germany selected by business area, number of employees and turnover. One important factor in combating this crime is an underlying sense of responsibility. Over 80 per cent of those interviewed recognise the importance of having pertinent well-defined codes of conduct for company management. There has been a five-percent drop in the number of board members guilty of crimes of this kind (2012:18).