Nearly every Brazilian company has been defrauded by scheming employees in the past 18 months, a poll published yesterday said.

The survey by GBE-Peritos & Investigadores Contabeis consulting firm found that 97 per cent of 735 firms polled said they had lost money due to inhouse fraud in the last year and a half.

The results of the survey were published in the financial daily Gazeta

Mercantil. The newspaper did not give a margin of error for the survey.

The poll found 83.3 per cent of the fraud - including misappropriation, theft, pirating and corruption - was committed by men, of whom 52.4 per cent were between ages 36 and 40, and 67.2 per cent were married.