Corporate Fraud, Within Corporate Governance

Internal fraud consists in “a type of fraud that is committed by an individual against an organization. [Furthermore], a perpetrator of fraud engages in activities that are designed to defraud, misappropriate property, or circumvent the regulations, law, or policies of a company”[8]. Not only has the incidence of internal fraud increased in frequency because of the availability of sensitive information such as client details or confidential business documents; moreover, this type of fraud is found in various types of organizations, ranging from corporations, public service institutions and financial institutions. Our analysis will concentrate on the most common and prolific types of internal fraud, namely identity theft, insider trading, loan fraud and wire fraud. Interestingly, PriceWaterhouseCooper conducted a survey that revealed that the “demographics of a typical fraudster are as follows: males (85% of cases), 31-50 years (72% of cases), reached high-school level (50%), Bachelor’s or post graduate degree (50%) and middle or senior management (52%)”[9].

The word “fraud” was magnified in the business world around the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002. No one had seen anything like it. Enron, one of the country’s largest energy companies, went bankrupt and took down with it Arthur Andersen, one of the five largest audit and accounting firms in the world. Enron was followed by other accounting scandals such as WorldCom, Tyco, Freddie Mac, and HealthSouth, yet Enron will always be remembered as one of the worst corporate accounting scandals of all time. Enron’s collapse was brought upon by the greed of its corporate hierarchy and how it preyed upon its faithful stockholders and employees who invested so much of their time and money into the company. Enron seemed to portray that the goal of corporate America was to drive up stock prices and get to the peak of the financial mountain by any means necessary. The “Conspiracy of Fools” is a tale of power, crony capitalism, and company greed that lead Enron down the dark road of corporate America.

Occupational fraud is defined as the use of a person’s job for individual enrichment through the purposeful mishandling or misapplication of his or her employer’s capital or assets (Wells, 2005). Occupational fraud can have a serious impact with far-reaching consequences. In 2004 for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) conducted a survey that provided 508 usable studies of fraud for a total of over $761 million

In fraud committed against organizations, the victim of fraud is the employee’s organization. In frauds committed on behalf of an organization, executives usually are involved in some type of financial statement fraud; typically, to make the company’s reported financial results appear better than they actually are. In this second case, the victims are investors in the company’s stock. A third way to classify frauds is via the use of the ACFE’s occupational fraud definition, “the use of one’s occupation for personnel enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of the employing organization’s resources or assets” (ACFE, 2010). The ACFE includes three major categories of occupational fraud: asset misappropriations involves the theft or misuse of the organization’s assets, corruption involves the wrongful use of influence in a business transaction in order to procure benefits contrary to their duty to their employer, and fraudulent financial statements involving falsification of an organization’s financial statements for personal gain.

* U.S. governmental oversight of accounting fraud and abuse and its effect on the company Potential corruption schemes to be aware of in the company

Fraudulent activities and embezzlement are more prevalent in organizations than most people think. Because of the multitude of previous scandals, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has required all publicly traded U.S. companies to have internal auditing and internal controls to check for fraudulent activity and embezzlement. While the Sarbanes-Oxley Act only applies to public businesses, the requirements of it should be applied to all types of businesses, even universities. In the Case of the City University of New York, having internal controls and auditing would have halted the embezzlement occurring there.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, several companies like Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, Global Crossing and Tyco, just to name a few, were embroiled in corporate fraud, greed and manipulation. These businesses were intentionally deceiving the public, their investors and even their employees. Company executives were hiding company expenses and liabilities, misreporting company finances in order to increase stock prices. External audit agencies that were hired to examine and certify financial statements for accuracy, were basically

Fraud is an issue that causes major scandals, although it is a very ancient scheme. Recent fraud events gave light to gaps that facilitated its events. Its extent was drastic by affecting financial markets that eventually trickled into global markets. Major organizations and countries worked cohesively and continue to address the gaps and, in effect, implemented strict compliance regulations to diminish and refrain fraudulent activities. Strict compliance regulations are examples of a fraud response plan the small family business could have implemented to refrain the perpetrators from fraudulent incidents, protect organizational assets and the organization’s going concern.

Lack of integrity, incomplete discloser, and unwilling to speak the truth are all scopes of dishonesty (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2013). Some businesses prompt and participate in dishonorable activities through unethical behavior. This is the very reason why today’s economy faces financial disaster. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act appears to have a strong grasp on controlling the financial environment in organizations; however, other financial disasters will more than likely hit home. Because these transgressions will emanate additional legislation might greatly prevent future misconducts. For this reason, legislations continue to recover with up-to-date implementations.

According to Investopedia online (2015), Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX Act) is defined as a “legislative response to a number of corporate scandals that sent shockwaves through the world financial markets.” Prior to SOX, the United States faced major financial scandals in the American history. Some of the biggest financial scandals involved such high-profile companies as Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, and Arthur Andersen. Two types of fraud exist in the corporate world. First is fraudulent financial reporting which is defined as an intentional misstatement of amounts or disclosures with the intent to deceive users. The other fraud is misappropriation of assets which is defined as a fraud that involves theft of an entity’s assets. The following will

A study conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) surveyed 959 cases of reported occupational fraud between 2006 and 2008. The report broke fraud into three categories: fraudulent statements, asset misappropriation, and corruption. Ninety-nine of the 959 cases reported financial statement fraud with a median loss of two million dollars, making it the most costly of the fraud categories. In general, the study found that publicly traded companies that had implemented SOX controls reported fewer losses (70 to 96 percent) than those who had not implemented SOX controls. These results imply that implementation of SOX controls are directly related to a reduction in theft and other fraudulent behaviors. Surprisingly, it was noticed that in companies where management must certify the financial statements, fraud took approximately three months longer to detect than in those companies where management was not required to certify the financial statements. However, due to the complexity and relative newness of SOX and the complexity of the businesses and the ingenuity of people, it is not surprising that SOX has not been a booming success. Hopefully, over time, all the wrinkles will be ironed out allowing for deterrence or immediate detection to be attainable. (Rappeport,

There were 347 alleged cases of fraud involving public company according to Fraudulent Financial Reporting: 1998-2007 sponsored by Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO, 2010) that were investigated by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 2010, which is showing 53 increased in the number of fraud when compared to the 1987-1997 study (p.5). COSO’s result is a sad number in a 10 year period, which averaging close to 35 accounting frauds a year (p.5). COSO’S study shows out of the nearly 350 financial frauds investigated 60% were identified to involved improper revenue recognition and 89% were recognized the CEOs and/or CFOs involvement (p.5). COSO’s research

The readers should read this specific study to understand corporate fraud. Corporate fraud occurs more regularly than one may think, therefore, understanding what corporate fraud is and the history surrounding it would allow companies and accounting professionals to understand how to help prevent it from occurring within their workplace. In addition, the research provides vital information and history regarding SOX, PCAOB, and AICPA and the rules and regulations required with financial statement reporting and how to better implement rules and regulations to make the company a safer place of business. The research is also vital to companies and accounting professionals as it explains the type of people that commit financial statement fraud

Some industry-specific factors, such as having valuable near-cash assets, can increase the organization's vulnerability. Also they will need to rationalize the actions as justifiable. The individuals committing the fraud must first convince themselves that their behavior is acceptable or will be temporary. For example, Barry Minkow’s believed that the lies and deceit are for the betterment of his company and that with time everything will eventually return to normal.

Fraudulent, erroneous, and illegal acts committed by a public company, usually at a managerial or executive level, have been a very serious problem for many years and have prompted development of strict and updated regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, in an attempt to prevent these occurrences. Unfortunately, these new or updated regulations are not enough to prevent these acts from happening, thus not alleviating the auditors of their responsibility to detect fraud. Some methods that management and auditors can employ to prevent and detect fraud, errors, and illegal acts are: improving knowledge, improving skills,