Though asset misappropriation and "cybercrimes" like denial-of-service and virus attacks are among the most prevalent economic crimes, most senior executives are apparently kept up at night by fears of financial misrepresentation, in which company accounts are altered.

However, those crimes only constitute two percent of economic crimes, according to a study by Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering.

The exaggerated perceptions of such financial reporting abuses are the result of media attention, the study says, as well as the "inordinately high risk of monetary and reputational loss attached to them."

The study also suggested that companies are over-confident about their controls—95 percent said they had "adequate" risk management systems, but less than one-third of the crimes were detected by those systems.

Most crimes were detected by internal or external audit, by whistleblowers, or by accident.

The complete report from Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering is below:

  Download Study "Economic Crime: The U.S. Is Not Immune"

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