Big Business Holiday Fraud: ’Tis the Season to Be Vigilant

Because nothing says "festive cheer" quite like a suspicious December journal entry.

December is the month of joy, celebration and… surprisingly creative accounting. While everyone else is planning holiday lunches, fraudsters are planning opportunities.

As Dave Oswald says, “Fraud doesn’t happen because people are clever. It happens because systems are tired.” And nothing tires systems faster than December… except maybe Mariah Carey defrosting.

Here’s your festive Fraud Triangle breakdown before things hit the high notes.

 
1. The “Oops, Wrong Card” Corporate Card Scam
December is financially stressful. People overspend, panic, and suddenly that corporate card looks a lot like a lifeline.

Pressure: Holiday costs
Opportunity: Finance teams drowning in year-end tasks
Rationalisation: “It’s fine, I’ll undo it in January… maybe.”

This is the adult version of “the dog ate my homework”, except the dog is a Louis Vuitton bag.

2. Financial Statement Manipulation To Hit Year-End Targets
This is the more dramatic end of fraud. The kind that comes with plot twists and documentaries on Netflix.

Executives face pressure to hit targets, impress analysts, and protect their bonuses. Suddenly, someone suggests, “What if January’s revenue… just arrived a little early?”

Common tactics include:

• Pulling future revenue into December
• Delaying expenses like they’re an unpleasant phone call
• Inflating inventory values
• Capitalising anything that sits still
• Issuing invoices for revenue that doesn’t exist
• “Smoothing” earnings like they’re icing a cake

Pressure: Targets, covenants, bonuses and egos

Opportunity: Complex systems and year-end chaos

Rationalisation: “Everyone in the industry does it.” This line has aged badly.

This is how companies go from “thriving” to “featured in a scandal documentary”.

 
3. Inflated or Fabricated Expense Claims
December brings out the creativity in people. Some bake cookies. Others… invent client lunches.

Pressure: Gift buying, festive spending
Opportunity: Managers distracted by leave calendars
Rationalisation: “It’s basically a business lunch. I talked about work for 30 seconds.”

The classic moves include padded mileage, mysterious receipts and meals with “clients” who suspiciously all have the same handwriting.

 
4. Procurement Fraud Covered in Tinsel
This is where the holiday spirit meets an empty budget and a very persuasive vendor.

Year-end means rushing to use funds before they disappear. In come the:

• Inflated invoices
• Kickbacks
• Fake suppliers
• Emergency approvals where nobody reads anything

Pressure: “Use it or lose it” budgets
Opportunity: Rushed approvals
Rationalisation: “We’ll check it next year.”
Spoiler: next year is too late.

 
5. Tired Year-End Reconciliations
By the second week of December, most finance teams are running purely on caffeine, spreadsheets and the hope of a bonus.

That is when things get missed.

Examples:

• Variances written off
• Journals approved without support
• Receivables quietly deleted
• Inventory adjustments accepted like unwanted gifts

Opportunity: Exhaustion
Pressure: Deadlines
Rationalisation: “If I ignore it, maybe it will fix itself.”

 
6. The Year-End Write-Off Culture
Fraudsters love December because write-offs become a magical hiding place for problems.

Write-offs often conceal:

• Cash disappearances
• Skimming
• Small thefts
• Inventory manipulation
• ATM or till shortages

It is basically a “lost and found” for fraud, except nothing is actually found.

 
🎅 How Big Business Can Protect Itself
✔ Strengthen controls in December instead of relaxing them. Think of it as the financial equivalent of gyming before the holidays.
✔ Scrutinise executive decisions. If something smells off, it probably is not the Christmas cookies.
✔ Require two-person approval for year-end manual entries. Even Santa needs a second elf.
✔ Watch for behavioural red flags. Stress, secrecy, unexplained confidence and last-minute heroics.
✔ Investigate variances. Small frauds grow like Mariah Carey’s annual comeback.

 
Final Thought
December creates the perfect mix of pressure, distraction and exhausted systems. It is the one month where fraud does not need sophistication. It just needs timing.

With a little vigilance, stronger controls and maybe a few extra cups of coffee, businesses can finish the year clean and avoid starting January with an internal investigation.