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Case Study Examination And Ethical Questions

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Case Study Examination and Ethical Questions Fraud in financial statements is one of the most common types of financial fraud committed by organizations. Tactics are utilized to inflate or deflate revenues and expenses to arrive at the desired financial position of executives of the business. Fraud, however, is not something derived from years of experience. As is the case of ZZZZ Best, the perpetrator of fraud in the case of this organization was its 15-year old owner, Barry Minkow.

Case Study: ZZZZ Best
Mr. Minkow started his carpet cleaning business at a young age of 15 years. He held aspirations of becoming a millionaire. Such aspirations led to Mr. Minkow masterminding a level of corporate fraud that propelled him to being labeled a ‘wonder boy’ on Wall Street and the lavish lifestyle he craved (Mintz & Morris, 2014). Mr. Minkow was so successful in concealing his fraud, auditors failed to detect them when reviewing financial statements. That is until one individual, a former customer, unraveled his years of deception.

The ZZZZ Best case was such that management set out to conceal the fraud from the Securities and Exchange Commission, their clients and investors, and the auditors engaged to conduct the audits of their public financial statements. The foremost question is, should said auditors be held accountable for their failures in cases where management goes to excessive lengths to purposely conceal such fraudulent activities from the auditors. The

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