Auditing Cases

“officials said the study is not meant to provide a comprehensive tally of water contamination

Enron’s history dates back to the Omaha-based Northern Natural Gas Company, an interstate pipeline company formed in 1932. In 1979, the Northern Natural Gas Company merged under their holding company InterNorth. Accordingly, InterNorth branched into a more diversified energy company working in natural gas marketing, production, and transmission alongside plastics

Case You are the internal audit senior responsible for conducting an assurance engagement of the XYZ Company payroll process. This process has not been audited for three years and, as such, is due in the normal audit cycle. There have been no significant changes since the previous audit, that is, there were no system changes, no reorganization of personnel, and no substantive procedural changes. However, during the last assurance engagement, the internal audit function identified several observations, some of which were considered significant. The significant observations related to:

Enron Corporation was once known as Northern Natural Gas Company, Founded in 1932 in Omaha, Nebraska as a provider of natural gas. Through its early stages, Northern Natural Gas Company was unsuccessful in their business venture. They experienced problems in persuading consumers to use natural gas to heat their homes because of fear that natural gas leaks lead to explosions. Thanks to the great depression, many people were taking the risk because of how relatively cheap natural gas was. As the company’s revenues and profit grew, northern began to acquire many of its smaller competitors resulting in their apparent growth as a company. In 1947 its stock was listed on the New York stock exchange, providing the company with more finances which it needed to continue its growth in acquiring its competitors to becoming the largest natural gas supplier in the United States.

Ques 1 From the four accounting professions, I want to choose Auditor. Ques 2 A ) The objective of an audit is to safeguard agreeability with the customer's work benchmarks, assess execution and amplify benefits. Clearly, regardless of how skilful the auditor is, auditing every record is a physical outland possibility. Regardless of the possibility that 100 percent of the data could be tried, the expense of testing would likely surpass the normal advantages (the confirmation that goes with analysing 100 percent of the aggregate to be inferred. What is needed is an examining of the records. There are various techniques used by auditor for decision making during auditing. Auditors will not test all the information available to them because they are uneconomical

Prior to 2002, financial statement reporting for publically traded companies within the United States was overseen with far less oversight in comparison to current reporting standards and procedures. Appropriate financial reporting is merely one element that was not occurring prior to 2002. An element of corporate dishonesty and deception existed within some the largest publically traded companies and this idea of deceitfulness was perpetuated by the executive staff of the businesses. Enron’s financial disintegration became the facilitator for the need of more rigid financial oversight, but they were not the only company that added to the idea of corporate fraud.

Overstock is currently audited by the CPA Firm KPMG LLP and has been since 2009. According to the proxy statement pursuant to schedule 14A KPMG’s aggregate audit fees for 2012 and 2011 were $1,037,000 and $1,092,000 respectively; all of which were approved by the audit committee. The amounts of $40,000 in 2012 and 21,000 is 2011 were related to the audits for Overstocks 401k benefit plan. Additionally, $88,000 in 2012 and $96,000 in 2011 were related to tax services, and 221,000 in 2012 were related to a cloud-based consulting project.

The focus of the corporation soon changed direction once it was realized that investing in selling intangible assets on the market could provide easier and higher revenue returns. This type of trading on the open stock market, with little regulations is what allowed the infamous criminal acts to take place and led to one of the world’s worst bankruptcy cases in United States history. An investigation finally occurred when investors found suspicious stock prices increasing exponentially and a whistleblower raised concern that finally revealed the fraudulent operations of Enron’s top executives conspiring with multiple businesses.

Koger Properties, Inc. 1.) The SEC has a strong case against Goodbread for violating his independence because as it is stated on the AICPA’s website, “Independence shall be considered to be impaired if: During the period of the professional engagement a covered member was committed to acquire any direct or material indirect financial interest in the client.” (aicpa.org 101-1). In Goodbread’s case this refers to the fact that he had shares of stock (direct financial interest) in his possession when he was the audit engagement partner who oversaw the audit of Koger Properties, Inc.

SECTION ONE : INTRODUCTION ENRON was established back in 1985 as an interstate pipeline company following the federal deregulation of natural gas pipelines. It was born from the merger of Houston Natural Gas and Omaha based InterNorth, a Nebraska pipeline company.

Prior to making her decision, we believe that integrity and compliance with the law were the ethical issues that Ann Marie must have faced. Integrity is the basic and most important value that is required for the role as an auditor. However, when Ann Marie signed and backdated the audit engagement she was dishonest with herself, the client, and the public. In addition, the purpose of the law is for every audit engagement to be reviewed in detail by a different person to provide quality information for investors and to protect the public interest. Ann Marie did not perform the detailed review, but signed on to the audit engagement in order to fulfill the requirement for the QC Inspection; this action leads her to violate the rule.

BACKGROUND OF THE CASE/ OVERVIEW Sonya Fuentaz, an IRS-enrolled agent, has been contracted for preparing an annual income tax return for Carlito Alverez. Sonya is a little apprehensive about the engagement because she’s heard rumors that Carlito is a major drug trafficker with roots in Colombia. Sonia visits his home to discuss the details of his return and she’s shocked by the opulence she sees because the house is on 2 acres of land just west of the Intracoastal Waterway in Miami Beach. The land is completely surrounded by canals and connected to the rest of the city only via a narrow bridge that has small guardhouse and a security team protecting the entrance to the driveway. She sees other uniformed security guards walking

Enron began by merger of two Houston pipeline companies in 1985, although as a new company Enron faced a lot of financial difficulties in the starting years, though the company was able to survive these financial problems (Enron Ethics, 2010). In 1988 the deregulation of the electrical power markets came into action and flipped the company from up to down, after deregulation company business updated from delivering energy to becoming an energy broker and soon after this Enron once a company struggling

The Fall of Enron The History Enron began as a pipeline company in Houston in 1985. It profited by promising to deliver so many cubic feet to a particular utility or business on a particular day at a market price.

Ethics in the business world can often times become a second priority behind the gaining of profits and success as a company. This is the controversial issue that led to the Enron scandal and ultimately the fall of this company. Enron Corporation was an energy company, and in the peaks of their success, they were the top supplier of natural gas and electricity throughout America. Enron Corporation came about from a merger between Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth. Houston Natural Gas was a gas providing company formed in Houston during the 1920’s. InterNorth was a company formed in Nebraska during the 1930’s and owned one of America’s largest pipeline networks. In 1985, Sam Segnar, the CEO of InterNorth bought out Houston Natural Gas for $2.4 billion. A year later in 1986, Segnar retired and was replaced by Kenneth Lay, who renamed the company and created Enron. Enron was the owner of the second largest pipeline in America that measured over 36,000 miles. The company was also the creator of the “Gas Bank”, which was a new way to trade and market natural gas and served as an intermediary between buyers and sellers. As the company continued to develop, it became more of a trader rather than a producer of gas. This trading extended into coal, steel, water and many other areas. One of Enron’s largest successes was their creation of a website called, “Enron Online” in 1999, which quickly became one of the top trading cites in the world. By the year 2000 Enron as a company was