Don’t let the word “wives” fool you as some of the most powerful and accomplished women in the world have been wives and mothers who have not only led countries and corporations at the highest level, but have been highly successful at taking the lead in some of the most important grassroots social issues of the day that affect us all. Occupational crime is not only a corporate issue, but is also a growing familial and societal issue that must be addressed with effective experiential deterrence measures.

The WCWP has stepped into the compliance space because we are experts on the subject of fraud and have a vested interest in compliance. Clearly, the stakes are high for all concerned. Greed rather than need is a growing epidemic and unsuspecting family members get swept away in the prosecution of white-collar criminal acts. In fact, employee family members have as much to lose as corporations do which makes them front line compliance stakeholders.

According to the DOJ, there are on average approximately 5,000 white-collar and corporate criminal cases prosecuted at the federal level annually. Occupational crimes prosecuted at the state level are not documented by the DOJ, but combined, occupational crime triggers billions of dollars in losses annually. For the past ten years, Lisa Lawler, founder of the White-Collar Wives Project, has had a front row seat behind the scenes of over two hundred white-collar federal and state level cases, many of which have made global headline news. Through this unique lens a new population of victims has been revealed and they are the innocent family members of white-collar perps.

Civil asset seizure is routinely utilized early on in white-collar cases to prevent targets from transferring assets during an investigation. At the time of the seizure, the government asserts itself as joint owner of a suspected perp’s assets and places the innocent spouse into third party status. In other words, the innocent spouse is now considered a third party to their legally owned untainted assets, placing them in the position of not only being their spouse’s victim, but also a victim of the law as their legal rights to their own assets are stripped from them, with little to no legal recourse. Without accusation of criminal wrongdoing, innocent spouses are routinely negated legal standing to claim their owned untainted assets and instead are considered as “collateral damage.” Meaning…too bad, so sad.

Five-thousand white-collar criminal prosecutions per year and thousands of gravely injured innocent spouses and children points to the indisputable fact that traditional compliance and deterrence efforts continue to fall short. While the culpability of any white-collar crime lies squarely on the shoulders of the bad actors who commit them, organizations that have constructive internal controls but fail to provide effective anti-fraud and ethics programming, also play a role in the commission of these crimes.

The WCWP has highly specialized knowledge of what takes place behind the scenes of white-collar crimes, and this bird’s eye view has resulted in the creation of a new approach to anti-fraud programming. A New Perspective on Deterrence is a seven-module course that reveals the hidden risks of white-collar crime, which begins with “compartmentalized ethics.” The majority of white-collar perps have no idea of the totality of risk when contemplating their crime because those risks come to light only after they are caught. The WCWP hears all too often, “Had I known that my family would lose everything, I would never have gone down this road.” Word for word, time after time. But how can workers assess the highest of risks if they are hidden from them?

Most people are in fact, risk averse, but because occupational crimes are committed by high risk tolerant workers, anti-fraud programming must be targeted directly at that population. A New Perspective on Deterrence was created specifically for high risk tolerant workers, across all professions. Compliance training that does not address the full spectrum of risks associated with occupational crime, does not have a fully functional compliance program, but rather, an illusory veil of a perception of deterrence.

A New Perspective on Deterrence introduces Enhanced Deterrence Theory (EDT) which goes far beyond general and specific deterrence. Derived from a ten-year study of white-collar perps, this course presents the extraordinarily high personal and professional costs occupational crime brings to those who perpetrate them. EDT also makes the case that employee’s family members are indeed frontline compliance stakeholders.

Enhanced Deterrence Theory (EDT) goes far beyond “capture and punishment” and immerses workers into the real-life consequences of occupational crime that are widely unknown. Where traditional anti-fraud programming pushes employees toward compliance to promote deterrence, EDT pushes employees toward deterrence to pull them into compliance. It takes more than checking a box, a signature on a line, or the threat of incarceration to keep bad actors on the right side of compliance. One bad apple can bring an organization to its knees.

Greed rather than need is a growing epidemic. Unsuspecting family members get swept away in the prosecution of white-collar criminal acts and have much more to lose than corporations do. The WCWP has stepped into the compliance space because we are experts on this subject, and have a vested interest in compliance. Clearly, the stakes are high for all concerned parties regarding effective anti-fraud programming.

The WCWP has stepped into the compliance space because we are experts on this subject, and have a vested interest in compliance. Clearly, the stakes are high for all concerned.

A New Perspective on Deterrence course makes compliance personal and the WCWP believes that making compliance personal is the key to the compliance challenge. If you don’t think the WCWP has a place in your anti-fraud programming, you’re not utilizing the most powerful tool in your compliance toolkit. It is your compliance officer’s job to provide effective training. It is the WCWP’s job to give your employees good reason to be compliant. An ounce of prevention is worth…everything.

Is your company doing all it can to prevent occupational crime?