Case Studies

Director of Audit Candidate Fakes Resume

A large US financial company had offered a candidate a position as head of auditing subject to passing a background vetting check. The candidate claimed on his CV that he was an Australian university graduate, had worked for 9 years in the Australian office of a Japanese bank and for an investment bank in Japan for two years.

The candidate provided a photocopy of his degree certificate and a call to his nominated supervisor at the Japanese bank confirmed him to be an excellent employee.

All well so far. Unfortunately, the certificate was false and he had never worked for the Japanese bank. Follow up checks revealed that the candidate had employed a business call service to answer the phone under the name of the Japanese bank and transfer the call to a fake voice mail message. He had then returned the call and provided his own "excellent" reference.

The only true information was the two years with the investment bank in Japan. Unfortunately that bank had not conducted a screening check prior to employment and it took two years of internal transfers before they were able to fire him.

"You are to be congratulated for outstanding work in helping us avoid a disaster. This certainly validates our decision to demand thorough background investigation of potential new hires. This is not the first case which I have seen like this, and I'm certain it will not be the last."

- Executive Vice President - US Financial Company