Ch 6 Flashcards
Employee fraud AKA misappropriation of assets
Use of fraudulent means to take money or other property from
An employer
Usually involves falsification of some kind
Ex. False documents, lying, exceeding authority or violating
Employers policies
Fraud
Knowingly making material misrepresentations of fact with
Intent of inducing someone to believe falsehood
Act upon it and suffer a loss
3 steps employee frauds generally consist of
1 fraudulent act itself
2 conversion of assets to fraudster’s use
3 cover up
Management fraud
Intentional deception orchestrated by management
And designed to injure investors and creditors by providing
Materially misleading information
Errors
Unintentional misstatements or omissions of amounts or
disclosures in financial statements
Direct effect illegal acts
Violations of laws or government regulations by the company
Or its management/employees
Produce direct and material effects on dollar amounts in
Financial statements
Embezzlement
Fraud that involves an employee stealing assets entrusted to
His care, custody or control
Often accompanied by false accounting entries and lies to cover
Up
10 personality red flags fraudsters often exhibit
1 sleeplessness 2 excessive drinking 3 take drugs 4 easily irritable 5 can't relax 6 antisocial 7 sweat excessively 8 work standing up 9 work late 10 make excuses
3 reasons personality red flags are hard to detect
1 honest people show them as well
2 often hidden from view
3 auditors not in good position to notice these characteristics
Who is in the best position to notice employee personality red flags?
Managers
8 Traits of typical white collar criminal
1 education beyond high school 2 likely married 3 member of church, mosque or temple 4 ranges in age from teens to over 60 5 socially conforming 6 employment tenure 1-20 years (longer tenure = more trusted and more fraud at larger amounts) 7 no arrest record 8 usually acts alone (70% of time)
When managers minimize the significance of a weak or missing control by rationalizing that the employee involved is a “long time trusted employee,” most experienced auditors will…
Escalate their level of fraud risk awareness
Fraud triangle, 3 conditions likely to be present when fraud occurs
1 motivations
2 opportunity
3 rationalization
Fraud triangle: motivation
Recognizes that an employee/manager has incentives (bonus
Compensation) or pressure to meet specific estimates
Fraud triangle: opportunity
Recognizes in order for fraud to be perpetrated, must be
Weakness in system of internal control
Fraud triangle: rationalization
For employee or manager to commit fraud, individual must
Posses attitude that allows him to rationalize why he is knowingly
Committing crime
Motive (in fraud context)
Some type of pressure experienced by person that is believed
To be unshareable with friends and confidants
Psychotic motivation
Characterized by habitual criminal who steals simply for sake of
Stealing
Egocentric motivations
Drive people to steal to achieve more personal prestige
Ideological motivations
Held by people who think their cause is morally superior
And they are justified in making someone else a victim
What is the most common motivation in business fraud?
Economic benefits
Fraud may be used to pay for 7 typical needs
1 college tuition 2 uninsured medical bills 3 gambling debts 4 drugs/alcohol 5 alimony/child support 6 high lifestyle 7 finance business or stock speculation losses
The higher the position in the organization…
The higher degree of trust
Therefore it’s more likely controls can be overridden and larger
Frauds can be committed
Opportunity for fraud with inventory
Inventory not counted regularly
So inventory shortages and losses aren’t known