Autor: Zoran S. PAVLOVIĆ, Nikola PAUNOVIĆ
Publicat în: Journal Of Eastern European Criminal Law no. 1/2019
Revistă disponibilă: aici.
Abstract: One of the typical phenomenological forms of economic crime in the modern world that represents a worrying threat is the asset misappropriation as the specific type of fraud. Asset misappropriation means the theft of company assets by the perpetrator for their own benefit and it can include a lot of fraud schemes committed by anyone who possesses the relevant information concerning the financial data of the target company. Bearing in mind that the consequences could affect very seriously the financial sector of the targeted company, the article deals with the phenomenological forms of this phenomenon. Precisely, since there are numerous forms, in this paper, it will be analyzed only the following phenomenological types of fraud: 1) Cash schemes; 2) Accounts receivable schemes and 3) Inventory and Fixed asset schemes. First of all, when it comes to the cash schemes, the focus will be on the forms of fraud depending on whether misappropriation of assets occurs before they are recorded in the books and records of an organization, or while assets are currently held by the organization or during the process of purchasing goods or services: a) Skimming; b) Cash larceny; and c) Fraudulent disbursements. Secondly, in the context of accounts receivable schemes, the attention will be dedicated to the following types of fraud: a) Lapping; b) Fictitious receivables. Moreover, regarding the inventory and fixed asset schemes the analysis will have consisted of the following types of fraud: 1) Simple larceny; 2) Asset requisition and transfers; 3) Purchasing and receiving schemes; and 4) False shipments of inventory. Finally, concerning the fixed asset schemes the article deals with: 1) Misappropriation of assets; 2) Recognition of fictitious assets; 3) Misrepresentation of asset value and 4) Capitalisation of non-asset expenses. In concluding remarks, it is noted that the advancement of the application of a proactive approach should be the main objective in combating the analyzed type of fraud in order to detect the asset misappropriation schemes in a timely manner.
Keywords: phenomenology; asset misappropriation; fraud; economic crime.
