...ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING EDUCATION Vol. 26, No. 3 2011 pp. 547–568 American Accounting Association DOI: 10.2308/iace-50004 Koss Corporation Case: Trouble in Brew City Brian Daugherty and Daniel G. Neely ABSTRACT: This instructional case provides auditing students an opportunity to examine an interesting real-life embezzlement and financial statement fraud occurring at a publicly traded company in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) era. The case focuses on independent auditors’ and senior management’s reporting responsibilities related to internal control over financial reporting involving smaller public companies (nonaccelerated filers). While all public companies are subject to external auditor and management attestation on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting following SOX, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted nonaccelerated filers numerous extensions for the effective date of required auditor attestation. In 2010, President Obama signed legislation to permanently exempt nonaccelerated filers from auditor attestation. The case also highlights inherent risk assessments by the independent auditor when one individual holds multiple C-level titles (Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, etc.) within the organization concurrent with membership on the board of directors, and requires students to recommend internal control policies and procedures designed to prevent or detect the embezzlement...
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...ISSN 1940-204X Koss Corporation Corporate Governance, Internal Controls, and Ethics: What Went Wrong? Melanie O. Anderson Slippery Rock University INTRODUCTION THE ACCOUNTING FUNCTION Koss Corporation is a Milwaukee company whose principal business is the design, manufacture, and sale of stereo headphones and related accessories. Michael Koss is the CEO; his father, John Koss, founded the company in 1958. The company has trademarks and patents for its products to differentiate itself from the competition. Koss Corp. has a six-man Board of Directors, including Michael and his father. John is 81 years old and serves as chairman of the Board. Michael is 57 years old and serves as vice chairman, president, CEO, COO, and CFO.1 The other Board members have served 25 years. Neither Michael nor the other Board members have financial backgrounds. Michael graduated college with an anthropology degree. Although Koss Corp. is a multimillion dollar company, it only employs 73 people, which auditors consider a “small business.” Michael has worked for Koss Corp. since 1976, and earns a base salary of $295,000; his total compensation, including options, is over $800,000.2 Selected financial data is presented in Table 1.3 The accounting work was handled by Sujata “Sue” Sachdeva, vice president of finance, secretary, and principal accounting officer—in a small business, employees typically have more than one responsibility. Sue, whose family was from India, had...
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...MACC 654 Koss Case Hanyu Liu 1.I believe the Principal Accounting Officer (PAO) should attest to the effectiveness of internal control when that position is not also the CFO. The PAO has extensive knowledge of the accounting processes and control structures within the company so an attestation on internal control effectiveness would be pertinent. In the Koss case, the PAO is the one perpetrating the fraud so the attestation from the PAO would be unhelpful. However, I do believe the opinion of this position does matter on assessing internal control effectiveness. 2.When one individual holds that much control over an organization it becomes a huge inherent risk to the auditor. If one person is the CEO, CFO, and COO, there are not that many others who would question decisions or scrutinize certain actions of someone with that much power. There is clear ability for management override and therefore inherent risk should be set high for the auditor. Risk is mitigated with accountability, and in a case like this one there seems to be a huge lack of accountability among upper level executives. 3.I think there should be minimum education requirements for CFOs of publicly traded companies. Not many people become CFOs without some advanced degree. Most of the time the exception to that would be people without business degrees who inherit the position, like Michael Koss. For these people there should be an educational requirement. The reason is because investors...
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...Koss Case 1.) I believe the Principal Accounting Officer (PAO) should attest to the effectiveness of internal control when that position is not also the CFO. The PAO has extensive knowledge of the accounting processes and control structures within the company so an attestation on internal control effectiveness would be pertinent. In the Koss case, the PAO is the one perpetrating the fraud so the attestation from the PAO would be unhelpful. However, I do believe the opinion of this position does matter on assessing internal control effectiveness. 2.) When one individual holds that much control over an organization it becomes a huge inherent risk to the auditor. If one person is the CEO, CFO, and COO, there are not that many others who would question decisions or scrutinize certain actions of someone with that much power. There is clear ability for management override and therefore inherent risk should be set high for the auditor. Risk is mitigated with accountability, and in a case like this one there seems to be a huge lack of accountability among upper level executives. 3.) I think there should be minimum education requirements for CFOs of publicly traded companies. Not many people become CFOs without some advanced degree. Most of the time the exception to that would be people without business degrees who inherit the position, like Michael Koss. For these people there should be an educational requirement. The reason is because investors rely...
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...Introduction My report is built around SEC Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Release AAER-3330 Koss Corporation. Before I dive into AAER-3330 let me begin by giving some information into Koss Corporation. John C Koss founded the J.C. Koss Hospital Television Rental Company in 1953. After a short time Koss was looking for new ideas, and partnered with Martin Lange to eventually develop a stereo headphone. Based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, in 1991 Koss Audio & Video Electronics started producing and selling consumer electronics products as a separate company in Hazelwood, Missouri, USA. The Koss family owns more than 75% of the firm. Having only a high-school education, John C Koss worked with Lange, an engineer, to develop the headphone that launched the company almost by accident, as they came upon the headphone idea as a result of an attempt to market a portable phonograph. Working out of 2 nearby locations in the early 1970s - one housing Koss TV-Rental, which also did electronics and musical instrument repairs - and their main facility 2 blocks to the east - Koss pioneered the high-end "electro-static" "ES series" headphone market. These headphones set the standard for wide-range frequency response; Koss also provide the bulk of headphones in supporting educational and library AV department equipment. Being very durable, they required service for wear & tear on cords and ear pads - and K&M Electronics (Klenworth & Midwest based in Minneapolis), working...
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...With these developments, it is obvious that conflicts between parties of different nationalities occur and liability to tax on income of foreigners especially among those engaging in trading venture. Whilst the laws affecting domicile and residence may be sufficiently settled, it is paramount for courts to pursue a detailed analysis to ascertain specific preliminary issues so as to avoid controversial rulings. Courts often handle numerous financial cases that involve what can be best described as foreign or international elements. In such cases, court must decide whether it has the jurisdiction under the Family Law Act 1975 to make a decision on such cases. In the event that it is determined that the court is invested with the jurisdiction to determine the case, the court has to consider whether there is a system of law in foreign country that also has the jurisdiction to handle the case. As it was addressed in the case Attorney General of New Zealand v Ortiz [1984] AC 1, these benefits and costs to either party if the case resolution is made in foreign country as compared with the apparent country should also be a subject of concern. [1] Legal systems in most countries around the world adopt community property regime, which takes effect at the inception of marriage or at the time of divorce. For instance, California and Massachusetts in the United States have adopted community property regimes that support equal division of assets upon divorce. However, this provision...
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...Adapted from Bernhardt & Kinnear (1988). Cases in marketing management, pp. 6-16. Plano, TX: Business Publications, Inc. Pay careful attention to the following points. They are often used by instructors to evaluate either a written or oral analysis. 1. Be complete. Each area of the situation analysis must be discussed, problems and opportunities identified, alternative presented and evaluated using the situation analysis and relevant financial analysis, and a decision must be made. An analysis that omits part of the situation analysis or only recognizes one alternative is not a good analysis. Second, each area must be covered in-depth and within insight. 2. Avoid rehashing case facts. Every case has a lot of factual information. A good analysis uses facts that are relevant to the situation at hand to make summary points of analysis. A poor analysis just restates or rehashes theses facts without making relevant summary comments. 3. Make reasonable assumptions. Every case is incomplete in terms of some piece of information that you would like to have. A good case analysis must make realistic assumptions to fill in the gaps of information in the case. For example, the case may not describe the purchase decision process for the product of interest. A poor analysis would either omit mentioning this or just state that no information is available. A good analysis would attempt to present this purchase decision process by classifying the product and drawing upon real life...
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...are given. It is understandable then that we should seek out more opportunities to apply our skills and make more positive impacts within our jurisdictions. It is this general attitude that led us to get involved in investigating cold cases. How We Got Started Mark had, for several years, been consulting with our Coroner’s Division as a forensic anthropologist. During this time he came to learn that there were numerous coroners’ cases in which the identity of the decedent was unknown. These cases were kept in three-ring binders on a shelf in the Sergeant’s office. Over the years, in the course of this forensic work, we would discuss these cases and the progress that was being made on them. The conversation usually ran along the lines of us asking “any luck with that 1980 homicide victim?” and the sergeant answering “well, we’ve gotten so many new cases that I haven’t been able to even look at it yet.” This went on for a few years and through two different sergeants. One day we, as a crime analysis unit, were brainstorming about how we could broaden our “client base”, as it were. We had been successful in integrating ourselves into our Investigations Bureau and had been involved in numerous major cases. And, of course, we had always been active in producing tactical and strategic analyses for our patrol personnel. But we knew that we could be doing more, particularly given the size and responsibilities of our agency. It was during...
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...BUSINESS CASE Presented to the Accountancy Department De La Salle University In partial fulfillment Of the course requirements In ACCTBA2 (C33) March 2, 2015 A stakeholder is typically concerned with an organization delivering intended results and meeting its financial objectives. In general, a stakeholder can be one of two types: internal (from within an organization) or external (outside of an organization). The stakeholders in this situation are Lanie Marquez and Tim Rodriguez who are also partners in the retail distribution business and their capital contributions are as follows P500,000 and P300,000 respectively they are an internal stakeholder since they are also the owners. The total Capital of both stakeholders is P800,000 and with a monthly salary for both partners at P15,000 on the assumption that both of them will contribute to manage the business equally. Assuming that both managed the business equally the total salary for the year for Lanie and Tim are P180,000 each. They share profit and loss equally and no interest will be given on capital contributed. The problem for this situation is that Lanie is starting to get concerned with the behavior of her other partner Tim. He only manages the business 50% of the time, which will mean that his salary of P15,000 will need to decrease by also 50% since he does not manage the business equally with his partner. The business has seen a downturn in the profit outcome and for the current financial...
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...Ralph’s Grocery and United Food and Commercial Workers Union The case that I chose for the week 6 critical thinking assignment concerns Ralph’s Grocery Company, located in California. It applies to this week’s material due to the fact that the case involves unlawful suspension and discharge of an employee, as reviewed by the National Labor Relations Board. Background In May 2011, Vittorio Razi was an employee at Ralph’s Grocery and was suspended and terminated after he refused to take a drug test without first consulting with his UFCW Local 324 representative. The company (Respondent) says that on the day in question, Razi’s behavior was in question, acting nervous, anxious, agitated, and slurred speech. After a couple managers discussed the...
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... Many people wonder why their own teeth stain so easily. The enamel on your teeth and chromogens are what stains your teeth, but what exact beverage stains teeth the most? I chose this topic because I was curious to know what stains teeth the most. It affects us daily because it could rot your teeth or you can’t pick up hot chicks anymore. So what causes teeth to stain? The temperature causes teeth to expand or contract making it easier for stains. So hot and cold drinks affect that. Color in foods and beverages come from chromogens. Chromogens are intensely pigmented compounds that stick to teeth enamel. Chromogens cause a lot of trouble when they mix and react with other stain causing and stain promoting factors. Tannis may be natural or synthetic tannis is another factor that stains teeth. Tooth enamel is porous making it extremely susceptible to stains. The darker the liquid the darker the stain. There are some examples that stain teeth. Not only sodas bad but also Gatorade. Beets are bad for you also. Mostly cause they’re concentrated. Berries dark skins stain teeth. Ketchup is also really bad because of its bright red color and high levels of acid. Dark liquids and sauces you put on your foods also stain teeth. Colored candy and popsicles both contain colorants that will transfer to the teeth and embed in the porous enamel. Fruit juices, especially grape and cranberry, leave a colorful tinge on the teeth and tongue. Colored sodas instantly discolor teeth. The citric acids...
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...efficient investigative products and services. As a result, the coverage requirements for ANACI and NACLC investigations have been enhanced to support a common content baseline for all agencies. Note that these enhancements apply only to those ANACI and NACLC cases submitted on an SF 86. The purpose of this FIN is to provide you with information concerning what case coverage changes have been made. The case price adjustments necessary to support these changes will be reflected in the FY 2007 case prices. ANACIINACLC Cases Currently, listed and developed issues which are identified in ANACI and NACLC cases (for non-DoD customers) are not pursued beyond the normal scope of the investigation. These cases are returned to the requesting agency so that the agency may decide whether to adjudicate the case based upon the information in hand, conduct additional follow-up themselves, or request a Reimbursable Suitability Investigation (RSI) from FISD to cover the additional issues. Beginning with FY 2007, expansion of these issues will become a standard part of both the ANACI and NACLC products. Effective October 1, 2006, issues apparent at scheduling or developed during the course of the investigation and which fall within the 5-year case coverage period, unless otherwise noted, will be expanded upon according to the following chart (exception: issues which are known to have been covered in previous investigations, or which would reasonably have been expected to...
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...find that you would like even more time. I recommend that you enter the exam promptly since I will make deductions for those exceeding the 9:00 o'clock end time even if you enter late. Third, know that the legal reasoning essay will come from Module 4 on immunity. The variety of scenarios in that question will force you to think about and explain the nuances between sovereign and personal immunity, between absolute and qualified immunity, about loss of immunity, etc. You will want to understand all four cases from that module well before the exam. I will expect specific citations to the cases and the principles that they enunciate. An additional case that might be useful for you to look at is Canton v. Harris. A second question will address the rulemaking process and the principles underlying it. You should "walk into" the exam (in a virtual sense) with a clear sense of a fully articulated rulemaking process, so that you can pick and choose elements as appropriate in the case you will be presented. The third question will be drawn from the text regarding the Constitutional framework. Finally, remember that "open book" exams can be as challenging as closed book because the "bar" (the expectation) is higher. I think you will find that prior preparation will make a good deal of difference. As stated before, when you open the exam, answer the questions initially in word and copy it back to the exam. That way, you will not lose work, time...
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...in which it is acceptable for anyone who has suffered a personal injury to seek compensatory damages through litigation from someone connected with the injury. It’s the idea that for every accident someone is at fault. For every injury, there is someone to blame. And, perhaps most damaging, for every accident, there is someone to pay. There are so many ridicilous cases througout history where people sue somebody or some company for no reason and get a lot of money from them. For example . A caretaker fell off a ladder and sued the local authority for not training him to use a ladder - and won.He could get up to 50.000 pounds compensation. One former ex policeman received nearly £90,000 compensation for the trauma of seeing a woman die after he crashed into her car during a 999 call .The husband of the woman killed by the policeman received £16,000 compensation. Policemen cause a tremendous number of accidents - so many, indeed, that one force has stopped its drivers from speeding. The effect is damaging to society. The courts become clogged up with greedy people out for themselves, many with no real case at all while other people with real compensation claims, the people disabled in accidents, crippled in operations or people who have lost loved ones due clear negligent behavior. All the other who just sue somebody with ridicilous acusations should be ashamed of themselves and I hope that in the future others avoid trying to cash in just because it seems so easy...
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...Case - Swisher System Corporation I. Company Background: Swisher Systems Corporation (SSC) is an industrial heating company which was established in 1949. SSC is an innovator of flexible heating products, especially with its knit and braided heating element. The heating element is multi-stranded resistance wire that is knit and braided with fibreglass and is the base technology for almost all SSC products. SSC is known in the industry as being the highest quality flexible heat supplier which produces control devices and heating cable. SSC’s competitive advantage is on the quality products which maintains higher and safer temperature that are more flexible than their competitors or other products in the market. II. Facts of the Case: A. Mike Watkins Director of Purchasing for Swisher Systems Corporation Solely responsible for purchasing all materials of SSC. Has various experiences in material management prior to SSC. Has more than thirty-five (35) years of industrial purchasing experience. B. Products at Swisher Systems All SSC products are solutions to industrial heating applications SSC manufactures fifty percent (50%) standard products and fifty percent (50%) custom orders. o The custom products can be applied to virtually all industries that require heating products. Industries like semi-conductors, food processing, medical, petrochemical and others. Biggest contributor of SSC’s sales is the cloth heating jacket, though expensive...
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