Fraud, Corruption, Theft, Misappropriation, And Fraud

Fraud is defined as the intentional deception or misrepresentation of facts that can result in unauthorized benefit or payment. Abuse is

Professional auditing standards discuss the three key “conditions” that are typically present when a financial fraud occurs and identify a lengthy list of “fraud risk factors.”

(TCO 5) Fraud is an intentional misrepresentation of facts, made for the purpose of persuading another party to act in a way that causes injury or damage to that party. In our readings and discussions we have seen several examples of fraud in business. Using that experience (1) provide an example of a common fraudulent practice in business with an explanation of how the practice works and (2) name and describe each of the elements of the Fraud Triangle.

4. Expenditures associated with unethical and improper purposes – this type for fraud includes the use of bribery or improper payment schemes to attain financial gain or business awards that the company may not have been able to achieve using proper business practices.

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.

Another source of a great amount of fraud is the fact that a lot of businesses are careless when they're hiring new employees because they do not do conduct adequate background checks during the hiring process. They also have lack an adequate network and do not have a reliable computer security system in place so that also plays a big factor in to why their business is victim to fraud and cybercrime.

Three conditions are necessary for financial statement fraud to occur. There must be (1) an incentive to commit fraud. (2) the opportunity to commit fraud, and (3) the ability to rationalize the misdeed. These conditions make up what antifraud experts call the fraud tringle (Libby, Libby, & Short, 2017, p 232). Some well-known names come to mind when I think of financial fraud (e.g. Bernie Madoff and his $50 billion Ponzi Scheme, WorldCom. Arthur Anderson). Also, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOx) comes to mind. SOx was a law that was implemented to oversee

The most common type of fraud within businesses is accounting and financial reporting fraud. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has made enormous efforts to establish laws and regulations by which accounting professionals and companies have to abide by to prevent fraudulent reporting and any sort of unethical activity. Many are very well aware of the Enron scandal which shook eth American business industry very much. A lot of investors were hurt and millions of dollars were lost. Enron’s CEO Jeffrey Skilling ended up being sentenced, even though his sentence was later reduced to 14 years of prison, (Berman, The Huffington Post). Because of the Enron scandal and few other similar ones, former President George W. Bush signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 into law. This act impacts all CPAs as well as CPA firms that conduct public company auditing. Attorneys, investment bankers, dealers, financial analysts and brokers are affected as well. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 now requires the New Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to retain a seven year record, cooperate with CPA groups, complete annual inspection, investigations may be completed at any time, registration with the board is mandatory, certain sanctions for violations may be put into place, etc. Without a doubt, there are a

Financial stress to include high medical bills, credit card debt rising, drug or gambling addictions and divorce. A few may feel neglected and underappreciated at the work place, underpaid and possibly overworked. All these pressures may motivate that person to commit fraud.

Heavy fines, exclusions from participation, and criminal prosecution can be the consequences for those who violate the laws surrounding fwa for healthcare. Over 1500 entities were excluded from participating in federal healthcare programs last year because of their involvement with fwa. The government has also instituted to protect those who report fwa from repercussions from other institutions or individuals. The False Claims Act protects company whistleblowers by protecting their current job, forbidding the alleged company from acts of demotion, suspension, or harassment to the employee. Potential remedies against retaliation include job reinstatement with double back pay and other special damages. Law suits called “Qui tam” where a company employee or private citizen sues the company on behalf of the Federal Government for fwa violations. The employee of private citizen may be rewarded with as much at 30 percent of the amount discovered to be owed to the government based on the circumstances

Wire fraud and business connect in the area where a false statement is dishonestly presented as a true to another party with the intention of getting the person to part with something of value with the use of an interstate telephone (or cell phone) call.

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.

The second part is opportunity. The opportunity to commit fraud usually arises through weak internal controls.

Fraud is defined as a deliberate misrepresentation that causes a person or business to suffer damages, often in the form of monetary losses through deception or concealment. And Occupational Fraud as defined by the ACFE is the use of one’s occupation for personal enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of the employing organization’s resources or assets. Traditional fraud triangle theory by Donald Cressey explains that propensity of fraud occurring in an organization lies on three critical elements which are Pressure, Opportunity, and Rationalization.

Over the past two years, corporate America has endured a plethora of fraudulent acts committed by those of high status within their respective corporations, most of which involve internal fraud. Internal fraud has two main aspects, misappropriation of assets and fraudulent financial reporting, with the focus of this discussion lying within the former. Misappropriation of assets is defined as fraud for personal gain. It is the most common type of fraud found among employees and frequently includes theft of cash and inventory.