Fraud Management : An Architectural Insight

Based on your scenario, recommend one (1) control that would prevent or detect your fraud. Support your recommendation with examples.

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.”

2 Managing fraud risk: The audit committee perspective Fraud in a fi nancial statement audit

It is important to first gain an understanding of the various types of fraud, in order to aid understanding in regards to the prevention of fraudulent activity. This paper begins with a review of the definition of financial fraud, and identification of the different fraud types. Further, included is an examination of what motivates individuals to commit fraud, including an identification of some of the method in which people commit fraud. A discussion of the importance of the fraud triangle, and how rationalization contributes to fraud is a key area of focus. Finally, there is an examination of some controls that prevent and detect fraudulent behavior, including the value and importance of understanding the nature of fraud for

Fraud deterrence occurs in several stages, and the key is to know that prevention is not to same as deterrence. First is the impact of controls

Potential for misstatement & fraud: Compliance with the established procedures and controls were found to be ineffective. The fraud reporting process, technically put in place does not serve its intended purpose. The ineffective control environment has created an attitude and tone across the company where errors and inappropriate behavior may be seen as acceptable, thus creating opportunity for concealing fraud and potential misstatements.

In the case of Phar-Mor fraud, the company was involved in cover up and some accounts were created to hide the fraudulent activities. Bad inventory counts in the stores were made to help with the cover up and deceit about activities that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. (Williams, S.L., 2011)

There are various procedures that could be taken in to account that would, if properly implemented, would have detected the frauds that occurred within the companies. There are many control risks that should have been taking regarding inventory along with preliminary audit strategies for the inventory and substantive test to be done that would have raised many flags during the typical audits as well as in depth ones.

Saiz, Thomas J. "FRAUD IS A MAJOR SECURITY ISSUE FOR BUSINESSES." San Diego Business Journal, vol. 20, no. 15, 12 Apr. 1999, p. 19. Learning Resource Center, t7lrcproxy.iccms.edu:2129/sbrc/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=9b7a4376-1cc6-48ea-8008-4ece1e694af8%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=JnNpdGU9c2JyYy1saXZl##AN=1805123&db=b9h.

The article, “To Catch a Thief” by Ken Stalcup, CPA, CFE, CFF in the November/December 2010 issue of Fraud Magazine, is about the importance of a “proof-of -cash” tool. This report exposes fraud that may go undetected even when good internal controls are in place and implemented.

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,

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.

Following the risk assessment procedures, substantive procedures are designed and conducted to detect material misstatements of relevant assertions. Substantive procedures include analytical procedures and tests of details. Analytical procedures involve evaluations of financial statement information by a study of relationships among financial and nonfinancial data. Tests of details may be divided into three types. One test is the test of account balances to address whether there are misstatements in the ending balance of an account. In the case of Crazy Eddie, auditors should have put greater attention to inventory and accounts payable accounts. The second test is a test of classes of transactions to determine whether particular types of transactions have been properly accounted for during the period. Crazy Eddies fraudulently classified these transshipping transactions as retail sales to inflate its sales revenue and continue growth at existing stores. A key ratio for retailers is to compare growth in existing stores to growth from new stores. The third and final test is a test of disclosures to evaluate whether financial statement disclosures are properly presented. Crazy Eddie prepared bogus debit memos of over $20 million to understate accounts payable.

A business can not work out without an account system, which includes internal. Internal controls are used by companies to make sure financial information is accurate and valid. Strong internal controls are signs of a financially healthy company and protect the company’s integrity. Strong internal controls can also increase a company’s profitability. There are several types of internal controls that companies used to protect themselves such as: Segregation of duties, asset purchases, supervisor review, internal audits and adequate documents and records. This paper will discuss several topics from a case study about And the Fraud