In today's recessionary times, more businesses–maybe even your own–need to be worried about employee fraud. Its can happen anywhere: In May 2009, two ACORD employees were arrested on theft charges, accused of embezzling more than $1 million from the nonprofit association.

According to research conducted by the Assn. of Certified Fraud Examiners, U.S. organizations lose an estimated 7 percent of annual revenues to fraud. Based on the projected U.S. Gross Domestic Product for 2008, this percentage indicates a staggering estimate of losses around $994 billion among organizations, despite increased emphasis on anti-fraud controls and recent legislation to combat fraud.

Based on a survey of international employers over the past 5 quarters, the Corporate Executive Board reported a 20 percent increase in observations of misconduct from the first to the second half of 2008; a 5 percent decline in frontline employee perceptions of senior management's commitment to integrity; and an increase in the number of disengaged employees, from 1 in 10 to 1 in 5, causing declines in companywide productivity of up to 5 percent. The Corporate Executive Board's research shows that business units with the weakest cultures have experienced five times the amount of misconduct as those with the best.