When you are managing an organization, there is little to zero room for fraud and errors. You’d wish for your company to work ethically and lead the path to success. However, things do not always work out as planned.

As per the recent survey, approximately 47% of the companies experienced at least one fraud in the past 24 months. Furthermore, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners reports that U.S. companies lose 5% of their gross revenue due to fraud every year.

On top of this, in 2020, perpetrators used asset misappropriation to defraud the company (86% of the companies reported the same.) It is followed by 43% of corruption cases and 10% of financial statement fraud.

Taking all this data into account, it becomes more than essential to protect your company. How? Well, the practical approach in this scenario would be to conduct a corporate investigation. The investigation can help uncover any suspicious activity and allows the organization to safeguard itself.

In addition to this, there are several other reasons why you should conduct an investigation. Scroll down to unveil those reasons!

Breach Of Corporate Executives

Breaches of corporate executives or board members’ legal duties can cause serious trouble to the company. It can impact the company’s finances and harm the organization’s reputation if the news regarding the breach gets public. Not to forget, it’ll impact the company’s share value, which will affect the shareholder also.

Therefore, such issues must be addressed quickly to protect the company’s reputation and that of the shareholders. It could be done with the help of a third party, i.e., a private investigator can help conduct an unbiased and independent inquiry.

They can help you find the answer to the following questions:

• Whether the breach has already been committed or is being committed.
• What should be the organizations’ response to the violation?

Public Corruption Or Bribery

Making bribes or offering “Anything of value” to any government official for the benefit of ones’ business is strictly prohibited by multiple federal statutes. In fact, as per the Title 18 of the U.S. Code., the act of bribery or attempt to corrupt the public official is criminalized.

That means if a person or corporate entity is found guilty of corruption they will have to face penalties. These penalties include a monetary fine, loss of eligibility for government benefits and contracts, and loss of any government benefits obtained unlawfully.

To avoid such a situation, you must pay attention to any unusual or suspicious activities going in or around the company. The best way to do so is with the help of a private investigation.

Workplace Discrimination Or Harassment

Discrimination or harassment reports in the workplace are severe. It doesn’t only harm the people but also affects the reputation of the corporation. Therefore, the company must take immediate action against such allegations.

To start with, you need to assess the merits of the allegation by conducting an investigation. Remember that the nature of the allegation will help determine the scope of the investigation. Nonetheless, it is essential that you run a personal investigation with the help of a third party, independent and free from biases. It’ll help in uncovering all the facts that’ll help you make a well-informed decision.

Also, it is essential that you don’t have any particular outcome in your mind before starting the inquiry. The reason being that it can influence the efforts to learn the truth.

Accounting Frauds

Accounting or financial frauds are one of the most common threats that almost every organization faces. It generally leads to shareholder litigation, thus impacting the corporate finances furthermore. Therefore, these frauds require a forceful, well-documented, yet immediate response.

However, to uncover these types of frauds, one needs an in-depth knowledge of the company’s finances as well as the accounting principles. Generally, the internal personnel of organizations have all this knowledge. Nevertheless, because of the same reason, the chances of them being involved in the frauds are also high. That’s why it would be better for you to hire a private investigator as they can provide a thorough report on internal fraudulent practices.

Cybersecurity Breach

Needless to say, a Cybersecurity breach is one of the most prevalent threats that almost every organization faces. It can harm the company data as well as the finances. Therefore, it is essential that you take immediate actions to safeguard your company with the help of investigators. They can help you determine:

• How did the breach occur?
• What information does the hacker have access to?
• Whether the intrusion is ongoing or not?
• What steps are necessary to restore the organization’s cybersecurity?

Nonetheless, before you hire the person, you must check if they have knowledge about cybersecurity or not. They can help in determining the cause of the threat. Thus a timely action can be taken to mitigate the risk.

Commercial Litigation Concerns

When faced with civil or commercial litigation, business executives must make well-informed judgments about how and when to proceed. It is required to safeguard the company’s assets or to enforce contractual obligations.

While corporate investigations focused on evaluating potential defenses and claims are two very different things, they do share some commonalities. When assessing prospective lawsuits from one side, it’s also vital to consider the situation from the opposing side. Thus, only an outside inquiry can help the company to protect itself.

Whistleblower Complaint

Last but not least, whistleblower complaints raise issues and concerns that are similar to those raised by government investigations and private litigation. Hiring a corporate, private investigator is critical for evaluating if federal authorities will prove the whistleblower’s claims. And, in case this happens, what defenses does the corporation have?

In such a scenario, companies can take proactive actions to avoid government intrusion by immediately acquiring this information. Moreover, they would also be able to reduce the likelihood of having significant liability exposure in a federal civil or criminal prosecution.

To sum it all up!

Conducting an investigation will help in discovering any of the following scenarios. This way, you can help protect your company and also report the people involved. Moreover, it’ll also indicate that you are very serious about corporate ethics, which might also help in elevating the company.