“Of course, you can’t work with this kind of information in isolation. That person could be a trust fund kid. But these things (information about a person’s lifestyle) provide corroborative evidence.”
Other “red flags” include a gambling or drinking habit, an unusually close relationship with a vendor or customer, a “wheeler-dealer attitude” and controlling behaviour.
“Corporate criminals tend to not take long periods of leave. They’re afraid that their scheme might get uncovered,” said Tan.
Often it is the most seasoned, hardworking and trustworthy employees who commit corporate fraud, she observed.
For Tan, it’s these three things that drive such behaviour: Rationalisation, opportunity and pressure.
“These always come up in my investigations. Some of them rationalise that since everyone is getting rich doing it, they should too.
“For example, when I was working in India, one employee told me they would share a room with someone on a business trip but submit a claim for two rooms to earn some extra money. She said other people were doing the same thing and gave us names. It turned out to be more widespread than we could imagine,” she said.
“Then there are people who have been in the organisation long enough to know where the loopholes are. They identify the opportunity and at some point decide to test the opportunity. They think: ‘I’m only stealing $2. No one will know.’ Then they do it for the next 30 years.
“Others have very high targets. If you’re a sales director at a pharmaceutical company, you might create a slush fund that you use to incentivise doctors to always buy drugs from you,” she added.
In Tan’s work, an environment can seem docile one moment and emotionally charged the next.
“Conducting interviews is my favourite part of the job, but it can be very emotional. They could cry or even get violent,” she said.
“Once, on my way to investigate a case in China, I got a call from the headquarters informing me that I was about to walk into a hostile situation. It turns out that when workers of the factory I was headed to found out about my arrival, they decided to go on strike. When I got to the factory, it was empty.”