Nearly five years ago, Congress rushed through the sarbanes-oxley legislation. The aim was to clamp down on fraud and restore investor confidence.

Now new figures show how badly it failed.

Despite tougher anti-fraud measures, three out of four certified fraud examiners feel fraud is more prevalent today than it was in 2002. They are also reporting increases in increases in incidents of expense and reimbursement schemes, bribery and economic extortion, according to the Oversight Systems annual report on corporate fraud.

The report found an eye-popping 56 percent saying they had personally observed financial misconduct in the past year.

And there's every indication it might get worse with close to half indicating that corporate vigilance and executive interest has already started to fade.

So how to stop the problem? Significantly, few of them it's a case of bringing in stricter laws. Been there, done that!