The results of our international research revealed that the characteristics of fraud cases and perpetrators follow some universal patterns, but that each geographical region faces unique challenges. Our second global study in 2012 reinforced this observation. With this in mind and in light of the upcoming 2012 ACFE Asia-Pacific Fraud Conference, we thought it would be interesting to look more closely at some of the trends in the 176 fraud cases from our 2012 study that were reported from the Asia-Pacific region. (For purposes of this analysis, we included the cases from the following countries: Australia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. This breakdown differs from the “Asia” region as discussed in the full 2012 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse.) Among our most notable observations was that overall losses were higher in the Asia-Pacific region than for the full sample of cases in our 2012 study. The median loss for the 176 Asia-Pacific cases was US$235,000, compared to a median loss of US$140,000 for all cases. And the median loss was greater in eight of the 11 fraud scheme subcategories we studied, with the biggest disparity in the losses related to financial statements frauds. The median loss for those cases in the Asia-Pacific region was US$4 million, or four times the median loss for all financial statement fraud cases studied.
