Dolose action
The term fraudulent activities (after Latin dolosus , fraudulent, deceptive ' ) summarizes in the technical language of the auditor's balance sheet manipulation , embezzlement , embezzlement and all other to the detriment of the company willfully together actions performed.
Characteristic features
Relevant facts such as theft ( § 242 to § 244 , § 247 and § 248a StGB ), fraud and breach of trust ( § 263 to § 266 StGB), embezzlement ( § 246 to § 247 StGB) and forgery ( § 267 , § 268 , § 271 to § 275 , § 277 to § 279 and § 281 StGB) are designated as fraudulent acts. In the last decade, however, computer crime has become a manifestation that has been favored by the advancing technology in the field of information processing and offers an as yet unforeseeable potential for the commission of criminal offenses .
Employees who commit fraudulent acts must be aware at the time of the offense that they are violating laws and / or internal regulations. The consequences caused by his behavior (damage to the company or third parties) must have been intentionally or at least grossly negligent.
In auditing practice, however, it is often not possible to establish with absolute certainty whether the act is deliberate or unintentional misconduct. In many cases, criminals will mix their criminal activities with proper actions in order to prevent detection (gray area).
Legal basis
The management of a company and the auditors are increasingly challenged to take an active role in the prevention and detection of fraudulent acts in the company. This is reflected, among other things, in the refinement of existing and the entry into force of new extensive standards, laws and regulations:
- Law on control and transparency in the corporate sector ( KonTraG ) of March 1998
- Law on further reform of stock corporation and accounting law, transparency and publicity ( TransPuG ) of July 2002
- German Corporate Governance Code from May 2003
- SAS 99 Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit of October 2002
- IDW PS 210 “For the detection of irregularities in the course of the final audit” from May 2003
- Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 of January 2002
- ISA 240 The Auditor's Responsibility to Consider Fraud in an Audit of Financial Statements from February 2004.
development
In Germany, the law on the control of company accounts ( Balance Sheet Control Act , BilKoG ) came into force in 2004 and the law on corporate integrity and modernization of the right of avoidance ( UMAG ) came into force in 2005 . An essential part of these regulations is the endeavor to reduce the occurrence of fraudulent acts and to specify responsibilities to prevent them.
The occurrence of fraudulent acts is to be reduced, among other things, by increasing the probability of discovering fraudulent acts. This increases the risk for the perpetrator of being discovered. In larger companies, anti fraud management systems are installed to prevent and detect such actions.
Some auditing companies and other service providers have special departments that deal with this topic. For this purpose, special tools are used to uncover or investigate fraud.
literature
- Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer (Ed.): Auditing Standard 210 (IDW PS 210) - For the detection of irregularities in the course of the audit. In: Die Wirtschaftsprüfung, booklet no. 22/2006; P. 1422 ff.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfram Deling: Dolose Actions and Internal Audit - Challenge or Surrender? Revision-Online.de, 2005 ( PDF ( Memento from January 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ))
