Byce had no criminal record and was the average person. This meant there was no reason to suspect her. She did have pressure and opportunity to commit fraud though. She had a gambling addiction at the time, which can lead to needing money and then more money. No one else probably even knew she had a gambling addiction. She also had medical issues, Crohn’s Disease, which led to surgeries and continuing surgery. Of course, these surgeries and treatments would have cost money. (Damien, 2009) Byce committed fraud with one of the easiest assets- cash. Through a lack on internal controls she was able to conceal her crimes well. She received blank pre-signed checks so there was no one verifying the checks to invoices and purchase orders. She also forged the contracts for purchases to which she wrote the checks. She was the one person in charge of it all. The she converted the checks into an account for the organization which she then wrote checks to herself from. She also kept two sets of books, which should have raised concern. (Damien, 2009)
These checks Byce wrote were for forged purchase contracts. With better inventory controls the company should have noticed that the amount of cattle did not change even though there were checks written saying that inventory should have changed. This should have been a big red-flag to the companies. Also, the fact that she forged documents all the way down to receipts and vet records shows a lack of control. No one called about any of these records with any questions for years. (Damien, 2009) White-collar crimes are less often prosecuted in respect to blue-collar crimes. In most people’s minds what constitutes a crime is not a while-collar crime. It tends to be harder to prove criminal intent with white-collar crimes. If you are prosecuting someone who is a well-known person in the community can prove to be even more difficult. People do not want to find someone like that guilty of a crime. There is also the cost to be considered. People that commit white-collar crimes tend to be well off financial and can afford a team of high powered attorneys which can cost the prosecution time and large amount of money. Juries are usually made-up of people from the neighborhood. The practices and details involved in white-collar crimes can be a bit heavy for jurors to make sense of. When jurors get lost in the confusing details it is harder to get a guilty plea. (Iwata, 2005)
To help prevent this from happening, or at least to lessen the chances, better internal controls should have been put into place. First, the person receiving the contract should not be the person writing the checks. Someone else should review all contracts to ensure they are valid contracts. Then it should be put into the accounts payable system. Someone else should write the check, an unsigned check. An authorized person should not review the contract to the check and sign the check and then mail it. This segregation of duties can limit the opportunity for fraud to be committed.

In this case they should have also had a better inventory control system. These contracts were for cattle purchases. If these contracts were valid then they should have noticed inventory changing. No one noticed for years a lack of inventory changes with these contracts. By implementing a control system for inventory a company can monitor its changes to see that it meets expectations based on sales and receivables.
Lastly, having a yearly audit is always good practices. By having an auditor come in they can check records and controls. If there is a lack of controls that you might have missed, an auditor can make you aware of it. The forged documentation may have been caught by an auditor as they traced all of the transactions. An auditor may have noticed two sets of books kept, which upon investigation probably showed different balances for the company. While an audit is not a solve all for a problem, it can certainly help to point things out that may be cause for concern that you may have missed or overlooked.

Ultimately having good internal controls can help to limit fraud. Good internal controls can control the opportunity to commit crimes. With proper background checks a company can also catch some of the pressures that push a person to commit these crimes. We cannot always catch all pressures but it can help. By hiring employees with some integrity we can help to minimize the rationalization that makes people think it is okay. We can only control this to a point minimizing opportunities is a big part of controlling fraud.

References
Damien, W. (2009, May 29). $400,000 fraud and embezzlement case wraps up with sentence . Daily herald tribune.com. Retrieved from http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/2009/05/28/400000-fraud-and-embezzlement-case-wraps-up-with-sentence

Iwata, E. (2005, June 28). White-collar crime proves difficult to prosecute. USA today. Retrieved from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2005-06-28-white-collar-usat_x.htm