46 percent of Polish companies victim to economic crime

Almost half of all Polish companies fell victim to economic crimes within the last two years, according to the Global Economic Crime Survey 2014 organized by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Polish media reported in March 2014.

“There is no doubt that the scale of economic crimes in Poland is significantly increasing,” said Marcin Klimczak, Director of the Forensic Services team at PwC, as cited by Polish economic daily Puls Biznesu March 13. “According to our knowledge, however, the rise is primarily due to an increased willingness of Polish entrepreneurs to invest in the East where the investment risk is higher. And where the level of detectability of economic crimes is higher, as businessmen have learned to monitor their companies’ expenses more diligently after the crisis,” Klimczak concluded.

As many as 22 percent of the crimes were detected by the Polish entrepreneurs as a result of sheer coincidence. This came as a bit of a surprise compared to a much lower world average of 7 percent.

According to the study, an average Polish fraudster is a man with a higher education, aged between 41 and 50, with work experience of more than 10 years. What seems relevant is that the respondents pointed out that the fraudsters would usually steal from the companies where they were employed (56 percent), and that they would usually occupy a mid- or high-level managerial position (50 percent).