...Ryan Smith Fraud and Illegal Acts We have been hired to perform a year-end audit on Jersey Johnnie’s Surfboards Inc., an SEC registrant. Before the audit had been completed, the engagement partner received a call from the director of ethics and compliance stating that the ethics and compliance hotline received a call from an anonymous employee informing the Company of possible accounting improprieties as well as concerns about management’s overall commitment to accurate financial reporting. This call was concerning a questionable sales transaction between the Company and independent sales representative of the Company, Mr. Sinaloa. The anonymous employee noticed a sales invoice made out to Mr. Sinaloa, dated December 31, 2010. This was suspicious to the employee because the company did not recognize revenue associated with the products shipped to Mexico until Mr. Sinaloa presented a confirmed sales order to the Company and those products were shipped. Management, the Board of Directors and the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors should respond promptly and appropriately to these allegations. “Failure to act aggressively against potential fraud could result in civil suits, enhanced criminal penalties under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, new sanctions established by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and enforcement actions by federal and state regulations. Yet planning a response raises a litany of concerns” (Breuer & Vinegrad, 2004, p. 1). Even though...
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...Caso 08-9: Fraud and Illegal Act. Análisis del Caso: I. Requerimiento 1: a. Antes de que fuese completada la auditoria del año 2010 se recibió una llamada por parte del Sr. Tube, Director de Ética y cumplimiento, donde el notifica al equipo de auditoria de una llamada recibida en anonimato donde la persona, hace una alerta sobre un posible fraude o práctica ilegal en términos de procedimientos contables. Esta confidencia a su vez, hace referencia al posible incumplimiento de los procesos y controles internos de la empresa, así como la integridad y exactitud en la presentación de la información financiera. Debido a la importancia de esta declaración y al impacto que esta situación puede tener, el Comité de Auditoria de la Junta de Directores de Joahnnie’s Surfboards Inc., debería seguir los siguientes pasos: Evaluar la confiabilidad de la fuente o persona que hace la denuncia. Hacer un análisis de las alegaciones o los hechos que en conjunto con evidencia los lleve a suponer de que en efecto si hubo un fraude o una práctica ilegal dentro de la empresa. Identificar las posibles causas por la que se pudo haber cometido el fraude o el acto ilegal. Discutir posibles resultados de la investigación y que acciones pueden ser tomadas. Establecer quién va a llevar a cabo la debida investigación. Evaluar y analizar los resultados de la investigación. Contratar asesoría legal para el proceso de enjuiciamiento. Presentar resultados a la Gerencia. Desarrollar...
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...FRAUD: FRAUDULENT ACTIVITIES A REVIEW OF THE CRIMES Introduction Investigations into fraudulent activities have brought much attention to Federal Government spending. The impact of fraud and the corruption caused by internal parties or external entities targeting government funds can be substantiated. For example, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) in a 2012 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse projected a global fraud loss of more than $3.5 trillion per year. Fraud and corruption is a common problem that is all over the world. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, 2006) wrote in its “Fraud Awareness” handbook that fraud is an enormous problem that can waste valuable funding and other resources. Fraud is a potential problem that threatens the Federal Government mission of protecting the health and welfare of the American peoples. According to the Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell University Law School fraud precise legal definition varies in the area over which legal authority extends or the given power or authority that has exclusive jurisdiction to decide legal matters. LII defines fraud as “deliberately deceiving someone else with the intent of causing damage.” On December 2nd 2012 Special Agent Jason Muldrew of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations at Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea printed news story said, “Fraud is defined as the crime of obtaining money or other benefits by deliberate deception...
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...Sarbanes–Oxley, Sarbox or SOX, is a United States federal law which was introduced in 2002. It is also known as the “Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act” and “and 'Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act”. The main objective of the act is to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures. New aspects are created by SOX act for corporate accountability as well as new penalties for wrong doings. It was basically introduced after major corporate and accounting scandals including the scandals of Enron, WorldCom etc so that the same kind of scandals do not repeat again. There are 11 titles on the act. Each title consists of several sections. The Securities and Exchange Commission needs to implement rulings on the requirements to comply with the law. These major elements are- 1. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board: This title establishes the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. It provides specific processes and procedures for compliance audits, policies for control purposes. Basically it provides an oversight of public accounting firms that do auditing. 2. Auditor Independence: It provides standards for external auditor independence, so that conflicts of interest can be minimized. It also mentions the requirements for appointing new auditor and auditor reporting requirements. Auditing companies are prohibited from providing non-audit services (consulting) for the clients for...
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...Fraud is a serious problem for most businesses today and often technology compounds the problem. In addition, the role of the independent auditor in the detection of fraud is often questioned. (http://www.swlearning.com/accounting/hall/ais_4e/study_notes/ch03.pdf) Fraud is dishonest activity causing actual or potential financial loss to any person or entity including theft of money or other property by employees or persons and where deception is used at the time, immediately before or immediately following the activity. (http://about.curtin.edu.au/definitions-impact.cfm) * Types of Fraud (http://www.auditsol.com.au/media/Fraudw.pdf) 1. Employee fraud Is internal or employee frauds are when fraud is committed against the company or organization a person is working for. Internal frauds can include: * payment fraud Payment fraud is any fraud that involves falsely creating or diverting payments. Payment fraud can include: * creating bogus customer records and bank accounts so that false payments can be generated * intercepting and altering payee details and amounts on cheques and Payable Orders, then attempting to cash them * creating false payment and financial information to support fraudulent claims for benefits * processing false claims by accomplices for benefits, grants or repayments self authorizing payments to oneself. * procurement fraud Procurement fraud is any fraud relating to a company purchasing goods,...
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...of government trading. A. Introduce the three government regulations covering the Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934, The Foreign Corrupt Practices of Act of 1977 and finally Sarbanes-Oxley Act. B. Origin of Securities Acts of 1933 and 1933 (Beatty, Samuelson & Bredeson, 2013) C. Genesis of the enactment of The Foreign Corrupt Practices of 1977. D. Origin of Sarbanes-Oxley Act and its enactment (retrieving information from: https: www.soxlaw.com/introduction.htm) 11. Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934 A. Registration requirement includes the statement and prospectus B. Annual, Quarterly reports and Form 8-k C. Inside Trading D. Private Offerings E. Blue Sky Laws F. Antitrust (The Sherman Act, The Clayton Act, and The Robinson-Patman Act) 111. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 makes it illegal for an American businessperson to give anything of value to any foreign official in order to influence an official decision. A. Applicability of the Act B. Prohibitions under the Act C. Penalties for Violations of the Act 1. Criminal 2. Civil 3. others D. Defense under FCPA 1. Lawful payment 2. Bona fide expenditures E. Fraud/Scandal of the FCPA of 1977 1. Detection method 2. Importance of Early Detection 3. Big problems for small corporations/organizations 4. Types of fraud and who is involved 1V. Sarbanes Oxley Act A. The effects of Sarbanes-Oxley Act on corporate culture (1) Increase in accounting costs (2) Increased records-management requirements ...
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...Unauthorised use 2. Computer related fraud 3. Computer forgery 4. Damage to computers 5. Unauthorised interception 6. Unauthorised reproduction of a protected computer program 7. Data misappropriation 8. Unauthorised access devices 9. Impersonation 10. Objectionable material and child pornography Compare the legislation available in your jurisdiction to each of the above items. The legislation can be shown in table form if convenient. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the legislation in your jurisdiction against the ACPR ‘ Minimum Provision.’ The Queensland Police Service has a dedicated computer investigation Section that investigates all computer related offences. To facilitate this, the following State legislation are used: Criminal Code Act 1899 Classification of Computer Games and Images Act 1995 Evidence Act 1977 Criminal Proceeds Confiscations Act 2002 Table demonstrating Queensland Law and relevant Act and Section |Incident description |Covered by State Legislation |Relevant Act and Section | |Unauthorised Use |Yes |Criminal Code Act 1899 (Qld) – Section | | | |408D – ‘Computer hacking and misuse | |Computer related fraud |Yes |Criminal Code Act 1899 (Qld) - Section | | ...
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...bugs, Operating system crashes, Power outages and fluctuations, undetected data transmission errors | Unintentional Acts | Intentional Acts | Accidents caused by human carelessness, failure to follow established procedures, and poorly trained or supervised personnel, innocent errors or omissions, lost, erroneous, destroyed, or misplaced data, logic errors, systems that do not meet company needs or are incapable of handling tasks. MOST LOSSES OCCUR HERE! | Sabotage, which is destroying a system, computer fraud, misappropriation of assets, financial statement fraud, corruption. Deliberate destruction to harm a system. (Cookie: data website store on your computer that identify the site & you do not have to log on each time you visit the site) | * The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) 2014 Survey Results Show: * 5% of revenues are lost to fraud (≈ >$3.7 trillion lost globally) * Median loss: $145,000 (22% of cases involved with losses > $1,000,000) * Most frauds are fairly small in scope * Median fraud scheme lasts about 18 months * What is Fraud? * Gaining an unfair advantage over another person. All five of the following elements must be present for it to be legally considered fraud: 1. A false statement, representation, or disclosure. 2. A material fact that induces a person to act (influences the decision process). 3. An intent to deceive (not accidental). 4. A justifiable reliance; that...
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...was EVP and a board member along with James Rigas (son) (USA Today, 2004). Together they owned the majority of Adelphia's stock and occupied the majority of the seats on the board. These two components would be key in the fraud that would ensue. The personal lives of the Rigas’ would be the root cause of their need for cash and the reason behind the fraud they would commit (USA Today, 2004). The Scandal The government described it as ''one of the most extensive financial frauds ever to take place at a public company" (Sorkin, 2004). The Rigas' used company money to construct a private golf course, own several private jets, and purchase multiple several luxury homes. They were able to do this by establishing "complicated cash-management systems to spread money around to various family-owned entities and as a cover for stealing about $100 million for themselves" (AP, 2005). In order to keep investment money flowing in, they would manipulate the books to meet analyst expectations, thus inflating the stock price and at times they would mix Adelphia's funds with their own private funds. Upon realizing the amount of funds that had been taken, Tim Rigas "limited" the amount of money his father could take to $1,000,000 per month. One example of the fraud they committed was they disguised Adelphia's actual expenses for digital decoder boxes. In 2001 the company claimed that it sold 525,000 boxes for $101 Adelphia million to an unaudited Rigas-owned company that has no cable...
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...Accounting: Accounting Fraud at WorldCom Date: 1/26/2015 3. What are the pressures that lead executives and managers to "cook the books"? The CEO and CFO of WorldCom wanted to “cook the books” because they wanted to keep the company’s stock price growing. Managers and accountants “cook the books” because they are forced to do so by their CEO and CFO. WolrldCom CEO Ebbers believed that increasing the stock price is their number one priority, so he set up a goal for the corporation--“The goal of WorldCom is to be the No.1 stock price on Wall Street”. In the 1990s, WorldCom built their revenues quickly by acquiring other companies. That’s how they do to meet their expected growth. However, when they tried to merger Spring, they were blocked by the Justice Department. When they failed to expand their company by merging other companies, the executive team got lost and not sure how to expand the company in a legal way. As a result, WorldCom’s revenue growth slowed. At the same time, the Dot-com bubble started to burse, so the revenue for the whole telecommunication industry begun to decrease. However, Ebbers wanted to remain the same Expense-to-Revenue Ratio to ensure stock price moving in favorable direction. Which was impossible at that time for WorldCom to fulfill without making the number up. Therefore, the executives decided to “cook the book” to increase the stock price and meet their goal by making the false entries. For the accountant, they are...
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...Bank Frauds “Lapses in system make easy the job of offenders to dupe banks” Fraud is any dishonest act and behaviour by which one person gains or intends to gain advantage over another person. Fraud causes loss to the victim directly or indirectly. Fraud has not been described or discussed clearly in The Indian Penal Code but sections dealing with cheating. concealment, forgery counterfeiting and breach of trust has been discusses which leads to the act of fraud. In Contractual term as described in the Indian Contract Act, Sec 17 suggests that a fraud means and includes any of the acts by a party to a contract or with his connivance or by his agents with the intention to deceive another party or his agent or to induce him to enter in to a contract. Banking Frauds constitute a considerable percentage of white-collar offences being probed by the police. Unlike ordinary thefts and robberies, the amount misappropriated in these crimes runs into lakhs and crores of rupees. Bank fraud is a federal crime in many countries, defined as planning to obtain property or money from any federally insured financial institution. It is sometimes considered a white collar crime. The number of bank frauds in India is substantial. It in increasing with the passage of time. All the major operational areas in banking represent a good opportunity for fraudsters with growing incidence being reported under deposit, loan and inter-branch accounting transactions, including remittances...
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...The Threat of Fraud Tracey Brewer American InterContinental University Security and Loss Prevention CRJS270-1301B-01 Jade Pumphrey March 28, 2013 Abstract Identity theft, whether on a personal or business level is a criminal act. So, for many years individuals have plotted and schemed to come up with scams to obtain personal information from other individuals or organization to either sabotage one’s reputation or obtain financial gain. Either way, this wave of criminal activity is wreaking havoc to innocent people and successful organizations everywhere. The Threat of Fraud Introduction Corporate fraud and executive identity theft are crimes that are on the rise. I don’t think corporations understand the impact this crime can have on their business. It only takes a few measures to ensure that the company is protecting against someone being able to access information that could bring the entire corporation to the ground. It can takes years to establish credit, build clientele and provide a service to the country or a community, however, it can only take the click of a mouse, that one email attachment or that one dishonest employee and your entire businesses financial data has been obtained, used or sold for the sole purpose of financial gain. Therefore, to protection your organization’s personal information. Well, it’s time to get the facts, take the necessary precautions, and start the process for what could be the first steps in protecting your organization...
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...U.S. SAFE WEB ACT Miguel Hurtado ITMG381: Cyber Law and Privacy in a Digital Age Professor Thomas Foss November 30, 2013 Introduction: Many bills and laws are passed each year regarding cyber security and cyber law. The very laws that help somewhat govern the vast reaches of the internet. One such law, the U.S. Safe Web Act, is in essence, much like the global war on terrorism. The U.S. Safe Web Act is the United States’ response to spam, scams, spyware and internet fraud, directed at the internet, and ultimately keeping United States citizens safe and sound from the evils of the “interwebs”. How can a law help in keeping a safe web environment for U.S. citizens – How can a beast like the internet be tamed? To jump in on the United States Safe Web Act, special interest items will be covered, for example a little background on its inception and early beginnings. The Federal Trade Commission will also be covered, along with the Act’s basic elements, jurisdiction, inadequacies and finally some major advantages stemming from the Act. Background: With cyber-crime being the growing buzz word in today’s society, we dive into a few key aspects of this particular crime and come to find out, despite the nature of it – there aren’t any weapons involved… nobody is ever robbed at gunpoint, but it is still a very scary experience that might not rob of one’s life (i.e. homicide) but just as bad, it can rob of one’s identity or drain their savings, messing with someone’s livelihood...
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...The main strengths and weaknesses of sanction policies June 2015 Student ID: Acronyms CIPFA: Chartered Institute of Public finance and Accounting DWP: Department of Works and Pension LCFS: Local Counter Fraud Specialist NAO: National Audit Office NFA: National Fraud Authority NHS: National Health Service NHS CFSMS: National Health Service Counter Fraud and Security Management Services XXXXX: XXXXX ousing Gr Table of Contents 1.Executive Summary.................................................................................................. 4 2.Introduction.............................................................................................................. 6 2.1 Objective of XXXXX sanction policy............................................................ 6 3.Literature Review.................................................................................................... . 7 3.1 Definition of fraud.................................................................................... 7 3.2 Examples of fraud ................................................................................... 8 3.3 Sanction.................................................................................................... 8 3.4 Definition of sanction............................................................................
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...While one may expect that companies and their employees will always seek to do the right thing they should consider the fact that corporate fraud is something that has always and will always exist. However, the level and complexity of fraud has grown and reached a critical level prior to the passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act in 2002 as a result of several financial accounting scandals that had taken place. Companies and their directors had instituted practices that did not encourage employees to take an ethical approach to accounting or business practices resulting in large companies like Enron failing and their CEOs being held criminally liable for falsifying financial reports. During this time the public had become painfully aware that companies were acting in their own interest at the behest of their investors. As companies started to fold when accounting scandals were uncovered investors, many of who were employees, found their stock worthless as the companies faced bankruptcy and criminal investigations. The result was a public that was afraid to invest and didn’t want to take a chance that their investment dollars would be squandered leaving them with nothing. Congress felt it was time to do something and that culminated with the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was designed to protect the public from fraudulent corporations. Prior to the introduction of Sarbanes Oxley there were audits in place but in many cases there were conflicts of interest...
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