The Craft of the Long-Firm Fraudster: Criminal Skills and Commercial Responses

This chapter sets out to explain the techniques of bankruptcy fraud and the way that they both reflect and adapt to the measures of commercial (and, to a lesser extent, criminal justice) control. Some fraudsters already possess an existing business and exploit the credit rating that they have built up (whether or not for the initial purpose of fraud); others buy new or existing firms to generate a credit rating and then use pretexts to explain their need for enhanced credit. Provided that suppliers request credit references from bureaux, the latter can build up a pattern of suspicious trading that fits the long firm fraud model, and, in any case, can use technology to check the fit between references and their existing databases, and look for mutual referencing between undisclosed interconnected companies. Police action against fraudsters enhances risks both for criminal professionals and professional criminals, but it is only when fraud levels rise across the board that serious credit control efforts are made against such frauds, which anyway are inherently difficult to differentiate from respectable business.