White-collar crime harder to spot now
Culprits getting smarter, better at cover-ups, experts say.
Sat, Oct 18, 2008
The New Paper
By Andre Yeo
HIS company suspected he was passing sensitive information to a competitor.
So they hired a private investigator (PI) to snoop on the senior manager.
True enough, he was found to be wining and dining with the 'enemy' at posh hotels and restaurants.
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Caught by IT security system SHE had quit to join another company. While she was serving her one month's notice, she e-mailed sensitive product information about her current employer, a trading firm, to her new employer. But she was caught red-handed as the first company had installed a system aimed at preventing corrupt activities from taking place. Biomedia IT distributes IT software products including BorderWare, which was developed by a Canadian company to prevent unauthorised e-mails and any forms of communication from passing through a company's network. The system identifies files with targeted words like 'sales revenue' to prevent company secrets from being leaked out. Biomedia's business manager, Ms Tracy Lim, 30, told The New Paper the system was put to the test just 11/2 months ago. Ms Lim said the woman at the trading firm had been headhunted by a manufacturer of one of the products that the company was distributing. After she resigned, she tried to get information about other products like pricing, specifications and logistics. Said Ms Lim: 'We put in a system and were able to monitor her activities. She had sent out the history revenue (to her future employer) of a product and we knew it.' Armed with the evidence they had gathered against her, Ms Lim said the woman's company sent a warning letter to her future employer threatening to sue them if they used any information they had received from her. Ironically, after she joined her new company, she continued to deal with her former employer as both companies were still doing business together, Ms Lim said. |
Mr Ang Wee Meng, 60, president of the Association of Professional Investigators (Singapore) told The New Paper that he handles one or two such cases of corruption involving white-collar workers a month.
The general manager of Standard Security and Investigation Services is a PI with 20 years of experience.
Mr Ang said the case of the senior manager was one example of how a company had suspected its employee of being corrupt.
Several years ago, the company, which is in the manufacturing sector, hired Mr Ang's firm as they suspected the senior manager of passing prototype research and development information to the company's rival.
He said: 'We were not told exactly what the prototype was. But it involved a big amount of money.
'We tailed him for a month and followed him around town to posh places like hotels and restaurants.'
Videotaped
Mr Ang said his operative videotaped the man's meetings with people who were believed to be from the other company.
The footage was then handed to the man's employer, but Mr Ang did not know how the matter was resolved.
Mr Ang said it was difficult for PIs to investigate corruption cases as they needed to be close enough to the target to collect evidence of their misdeeds.
They also have to be very careful when handling evidence, like video recordings, so they could hold up in court.
At the Anti-Corruption Expertise workshop yesterday, Mr Peter Ho, head of the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, spoke about the difficulties of investigating corruption cases.
One difficulty in weeding out corrupt workers is that the culprits have become better at covering up their misdeeds.
This trend of workers covering up their misdeeds has increased in the last 10 years, said Navigant Consulting, an American global risk consulting company that also investigates white-collar crime and corruption cases.
The company's managing director (Asia), Mr John Flannery, 53, told The New Paper in a phone interview from Hong Kong: 'With computerised services, people who are involved in inappropriate activities have been compelled to look at the way they do such activities, and have adjusted their modus operandi.'
So how can employers stop graft?
Through good corporate governance and ensuring compliance with the rules.
Mr Flannery said: 'They have manuals but if there are no checks and balances, individuals will see an opportunity in taking the next step to conduct inappropriate activities.'
The three-day workshop, organised by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ends today.
This article was first published in The New Paper on Oct 16, 2008.