The workload in the returns department of a large Swiss online mail-order business is abnormally high. The accounts department has noticed for some time that a relatively large quantity of goods is classed as ‘no longer usable’ and sold on to professional returns buyers at a low price. An internal audit was unsuccessful, no irregularities could be detected.
Criminalistic research and operational investigations by System 360 established that even perfect goods were classed as ‘poor or defective’. Forensic follow-up investigations showed that an employee in the complaints department collaborated with a returns dealer, buying up the perfect goods at low prices via a common business connection and reselling them at a large profit. Within a year, the illegal profits made by the two perpetrators had already reached the million-euro mark.
