With an economy in a decidedly deadly downward spiral, businesses have become unfortunate victims to employee theft, which, though it may include ‘smaller’ things like helping themselves to printing paper now and then, also includes the misappropriation of company funds or pilfering of products.
It may take a while for an employer to become aware of losses in certain departments, and even when the losses can be quantified, finding the culprit and bringing them to justice will take a lot more than mere suspicion.
South African economic crime is higher than the global average!
Crime syndicates offer substantial payments for confidential and sensitive company information, which could include corporate espionage that could rob your company of secrets around new product development or the possibility of expanding.
Employee theft includes issues such as fiddling with funds in terms of inventing overtime that isn’t worked and can go as far as taking kickbacks from suppliers or buyers.
False invoices, the manipulation of accounts and even using company time to do personal work, are all white collar crimes that can allow employees to more than double their income.
A report released March 3rd 2020 in iOL reads ‘Economic crime in SA increases – PwC report’, reporting that South Africa’s rate of economic crime continues to remain significantly higher than the global average of 47%.
This was obviously just ahead of our hard lockdown due to COVID-19, which make these statistics frightening for any business, big or small, and the losses will not decrease at this critical time in the world economically.
In an economy that is has been crippled by the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, no one can afford these kinds of losses, which is why many businesses hire King Investigators to get to the bottom of any of these crimes and to root out employees guilty of defrauding the company.
There are many examples of how employees are able to defraud your business and steal from your company, however, if you want to know exactly where your business is bleeding funds and what’s happening in your business behind the scenes, forming a working relationship with a private investigator will be one of the best decisions you can make to protect your interests.
The main reason it makes sense for a business to hire a private investigator is to beef up your need to be able to produce actual evidence against an employee before you can take any decision about the appropriate course of action to be taken against the guilty party.
King Investigators in Gauteng, South Africa, are the top team of investigators to have on your side when it comes to dealing with a team that has the experience and aptitude to investigate various forms of data, in order to get to the bottom of financial fraud, internal and external theft, asset misappropriation and many other forms of business intelligence services.
These forms of investigations require an exceptional level of professionalism and experience, which is exactly what you can expect from Jacques Botha, owner of King Investigators, along with his team of registered and licensed investigators.
Take a proactive approach to protecting your business interests.
Starting right at the beginning, such as bringing King Investigators in to carry out in-depth employee background checks before you hire, is a great start to protecting your interests.
However, when despite this, losses continue, it may be time to institute polygraph tests and voice stress analysis tests, in an effort to root out the guilty parties and to put an end to the perpetrators of crime in your business.
It may even be necessary for one of the team of investigators at King Investigators to go undercover in your business, to get to the bottom of a criminal matter, in which case you can be sure that you’re dealing with consummate professionals who will not compromise the investigation.
If you need high quality investigative support to stop the drain on your profit margins, please contact Jacques and his team today to find out more about how these professionals can assist in protecting your business interests!