Whilst the concealing, and uncovering, of assets is certainly not limited to divorce cases, it is one of the areas where issues commonly arise. A spouse/partner may be severely prejudiced if she/he is not aware of what is happening to her/his joint financial affairs.

As forensic practitioners, we are often asked: Why do people commit fraud? We understand “fraud” as including a range of criminal and unethical behaviours and we will use it in that sense in this article, too.

In recent years, there has been increasing concern internationally about bribery and corruption. As a result, many countries have passed laws (or have sought to implement existing laws more actively) that target bribery and corruption, both inside and beyond their national borders. Apart from any reputational risk management issues, penalties for non-compliance are potentially very severe for offending parties, so it’s not just a case of “doing the right thing” from an ethical standpoint.