Corporate Crimes

All sectors are affected, especially those where employees have access to money, goods, or trade secrets: from small shops to retail giants, from restaurants to major banks, from high-tech companies to multinational corporations.

The corporate crime register provides a reflection of the company’s hierarchy and ranges from personal phone calls to organized crime on a large scale. Classic property crimes such as theft, embezzlement, misappropriation, and fraud lead the ranking by far, accounting for about 40 percent. Other relevant offenses include product and brand piracy, corruption, data theft, data misuse, as well as violations of antitrust laws and manipulation of financial statements. Also increasingly sought after as loot are sensitive data on which the company’s existence may depend.

Often, only small details or coincidences arouse suspicion, sometimes internal tips trigger an avalanche. The resources of the police will rarely allow them to pursue a small initial suspicion or even to infiltrate an undercover investigator.

Apart from “burying one’s head in the sand,” the alternative remains to hire a detective agency with the necessary flexibility and expertise. They can find the common thread running through a criminal network.

Depending on the development of the investigations, a decision can still be made whether to involve the police or prioritize a discreet internal resolution. In about 80 percent of cases, the focus is on labor law consequences and the fullest possible repayment of the damage caused. Moreover, in certain cases, the detective’s fee can be reclaimed from the wrongdoer.

The (almost ingenious) scams of the chief accountant Franz Lettmüller, who wrote criminal history with the largest embezzlements in the Second Republic, are considered a classic example; we documented his (end). The book “Das 300 Millionen Ding” (The 300 Million Thing) written by the business journalist Torsten Weidnitzer is considered a standard work by economic crime investigators and auditors.