New Zealand is perceived as being the least corrupt nation on earth, but perception doesn’t always match up to reality.

Many of New Zealand’s largest businesses listed on the NZX50 don’t pass some fundamental best practice ethics tests and fraud is rife in smaller businesses, government departments are not immune

Government dept WINZ fails to stop staff fraud – “An internal fraud unit at Work and Income was not able to prevent 13 cases of staff theft in the past five years, involving sums totalling more than $180,000. Since 2006, a dozen employees of the Social Development Ministry have either lied to procure welfare payments or deliberately defrauded the system from within, documents disclosed to The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act show…” (April 2010)

nor are universities free from “financial irregularities.”

“Fraud is hurting the not-for-profit (NFP) sector and more needs to be done to police the issue according to accounting firm BDO. BDO’s 2012 Not-For-Profit Fraud survey shows that reported fraud is down 19% to 12% there are concerns fraud is still going undetected. There is a “it won’t happen to us” attitude within the NFP sector, BDO’s NFP sector leader Bernard Lamusse said.

“While the majority of respondents (86%) agree that fraud is a problem for the sector as a whole, only 8% believe it’s a problem for their individual organisation. This could also explain why 72% of respondents still don’t see a great importance in fraud prevention,” Mr Lamusse said.

A major concern is the significant rise in amounts stolen via electronic funds transfer and online banking – on average costing an organisation $370,000, which accounts for nearly half of the total value of fraud committed.” more here NBR

The largest employee theft committed in New Zealand was by former ASB investment banker Stephen Versalko, who stole $17.8 million over nine years. source.

Despite stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars people are frequently sentenced to nothing more onerous than community service, it seems that little can be done to stem the rising tide of fraud within New Zealand. Even the banks don’t seem to be able to control it:

Bank Manager convicted of $1.4 million theft
27 April 2012

A long-running employee fraud case concluded today when Susan Ann Bourton, a 36 year-old former Hamilton Westpac Bank Manager was convicted of 81 charges of defrauding her employer of $1.4 million.

Bourton would target vulnerable clients who did not know how to use phone or internet banking, and kept for herself the money they handed over to her. She also created accounts in customers names without their knowledge and altered loan documents to fraudulently obtain funds to buy a luxury lodge in Lake Karapiro Lodge

She resigned from the bank when she thought her frauds were about to be discovered, later moving to Ireland. However, she was arrested in July 2009 when she came back to New Zealand for a holiday.

Bourton managed to delay her trial for several years because she kept hiring and then firing successive lawyers she had engaged to defend her – seven lawyers in all. She has been remanded in custody for sentencing in June.
Read more: http://www.verify.co.nz/news-theftnz.php