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The Complete Guide to Spotting Accounting Fraud & Cover-ups: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply
The Complete Guide to Spotting Accounting Fraud & Cover-ups: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply
The Complete Guide to Spotting Accounting Fraud & Cover-ups: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply
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The Complete Guide to Spotting Accounting Fraud & Cover-ups: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply

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According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, accounting fraud cost more than $994 billion in recent years, and the average organization lost 7 percent of its total revenue to fraud. So how can you prevent this from happening? The Complete Guide to Spotting Accounting Fraud & Cover-Ups details how to spot minor abnormalities or forgeries in paperwork, as well as what to immediately suspect and methods for uncovering scams.

You will learn the signs to look for, including excessive turnover of lawyers and auditors, changing professionals in the middle of a transaction, inconsistent information, and significant declines in stock prices. You will learn how to recognize earnings manipulation, premature and fictitious revenue, overvalued assets and undervalued liabilities, and more.

This manual will be an indispensable aid for serious investors, industry pros, acquisition and merger managers, and small business owners alike. After reading The Complete Guide to Spotting Accounting Fraud & Cover-Ups, you will no longer have to worry about accounting fraud and can focus on increasing your profits.

Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company president’s garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed.

This Atlantic Publishing eBook was professionally written, edited, fact checked, proofed and designed. The print version of this book is 336 pages and you receive exactly the same content. Over the years our books have won dozens of book awards for content, cover design and interior design including the prestigious Benjamin Franklin award for excellence in publishing. We are proud of the high quality of our books and hope you will enjoy this eBook version.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 19, 2010
ISBN9781601386434
The Complete Guide to Spotting Accounting Fraud & Cover-ups: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply

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The Complete Guide to Spotting Accounting Fraud & Cover-ups - Martha Maeda

The Complete Guide to Spotting

Accounting Fraud & Cover-Ups

Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply

By Martha Maeda

With Foreword By Thomas M. Neches, CPA

The Complete Guide to Spotting Accounting Fraud & Cover-Ups: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply

Copyright © 2010 Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc.

1210 SW 23rd Place • Ocala, Florida 34471

Phone 800-814-1132 • Fax 352-622-1875

Website: www.atlantic-pub.com • E-mail: sales@atlantic-pub.com

SAN Number: 268-1250

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be sent to Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc., 1210 SW 23rd Place, Ocala, Florida 34471

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Maeda, Martha, 1953-

The complete guide to spotting accounting fraud & cover-ups : everything you need to know explained simply / by Martha Maeda.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60138-212-2 (alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 1-60138-212-X (alk. paper)

1. Accounting fraud. 2. Corporations--Accounting--Corrupt practices. I. Title. II. Title: Complete guide to spotting accounting fraud and cover-ups.

HF5636.M34 2010

364.16’3--dc22

2009050823

All trademarks, trade names, or logos mentioned or used are the property of their respective owners and are used only to directly describe the products being provided. Every effort has been made to properly capitalize, punctuate, identify, and attribute trademarks and trade names to their respective owners, including the use of ® and ™ wherever possible and practical. Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc. is not a partner, affiliate, or licensee with the holders of said trademarks.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bear’s memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

– Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.

Support local and no-kill animal shelters.

Plant a tree to honor someone you love.

Be a developer — put up some birdhouses.

Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.

Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.

Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.

Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.

Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.

If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.

Support your local farmers market.

Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1: Defining and Measuring Fraud

Chapter 2: The Scope of the Problem

Chapter 3: Who Commits Fraud?

Chapter 4: How Fraud is Detected

Chapter 5: Asset Misappropriation and Embezzlement

Chapter 6: Fraudulent Disbursements

Chapter 7: Corruption

Chapter 8: Financial Statement Fraud

Chapter 9: Detecting Accounting Fraud Within an Organization

Chapter 10: For Investors: Detecting Financial Statement Fraud in Public Financial Statements

Chapter 11: Detecting Seven Types of Financial Statement Manipulations

Chapter 12: Preventing Fraud in Your Company or Business

Chapter 13: Conducting a Fraud Risk Assessment

Chapter 14: Conducting an Internal Fraud Investigation

Conclusion

Appendix A: Useful Resources and Web Sites

Appendix B: Glossary of Terms

Bibliography

Author Biography

Foreword

Accounting fraud is everywhere.

According to the 2008 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud & Abuse, prepared by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, organizations in the United States lose 7 percent of their annual revenues to fraud. Applied to the projected 2008 U.S. gross domestic product, this 7 percent figure translates to approximately $994 billion in fraud losses annually.

As a certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner specializing in financial litigation, I encounter fraud on a daily basis. I got into the fraud investigation business 23 years ago when I was asked to help the receiver appointed by the Securities & Exchange Commission figure out how to return what was left of $70 million stolen from 5,000 investors, mostly elderly, retired couples. The fraudsters operated a Ponzi scheme using the facade of a bank. Typical of Ponzi schemes, fictional investments were offered to investors, in this case phony commodities, arbitrage trading, and gold mines. In fact, investors were paid profits using money collected from new participants because there were no profits from actual investments. In this case, the duped investors fared far better than most victims of such scams: On average, we were able to return $.30 for every dollar the victim invested.

Of course, most frauds do not involve millions of dollars. Small businesses are especially vulnerable to accounting fraud. I have lost track of the number of times I have heard the defrauded small business owner say, I can’t believe they the money. They worked for me as my (bookkeeper, office manager, secretary, assistant, or controller) for (5, 10, 15, or 20) years. I trusted them completely.

Who commits accounting fraud? How much do they steal? How do they do it? How are they caught? Here are some fascinating statistics:

• The median loss caused by a financial statement fraud* is $2,000,000.

• The median loss caused by an occupational fraud† is $175,000.

• Occupational fraud is most often committed by the accounting department (29 percent) or upper management (18 percent).

• The most common occupational fraud scheme in small businesses is the submission of invoices for phony goods or services, or for personal expenses (29 percent).

• Nearly all perpetrators are first-time offenders (93 percent).

• Most frauds are detected by tips (42 percent) or by accident

(30 percent).

• The typical fraud lasts two years from inception to detection.

* Financial statement fraud involves the intentional misstatement or omission of material information from an organization’s financial reports.

† Occupational fraud involves the use of one’s occupation for personal enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of the employing organization’s resources or assets.

What can an employee, business owner, or investor do to prevent or uncover accounting fraud? It can be hard to find out; most books about fraud are written by experts for experts. In The Complete Guide to Spotting Accounting Fraud & Cover-Ups, Martha Maeda provides simple and clear explanations of important accounting fraud issues using terms easily understood by the novice. She also supplies numerous case studies, data sources, and results of surveys valuable to the professional fraud investigator.

Directed primarily at the layperson, this book provides a comprehensive overview of accounting fraud both in large corporations and in small businesses. You will learn who perpetrates accounting frauds, the different types of frauds committed, and how these frauds are accomplished. You also will learn basic steps you can take to detect fraud after it has occurred (for example, simply noticing that an employee previously in financial difficulty now appears to be living beyond his or her means) and to avoid fraud in the first place (for example, requiring that the person who signs the checks not be the person who reconciles the bank statements).

One of the most important messages of The Complete Guide to Spotting Accounting Fraud & Cover-Ups is that while accounting fraud is rampant, if you are armed with the knowledge found in this book, you can protect yourself and your investments against fraud and maximize your chances of success in the dangerous world of business.

—Thomas Neches

About Thomas Neches:

Thomas Neches, managing partner of Thomas Neches & Company LLP, provides accounting, financial, business valuation, and statistical analyses to assist attorneys involved in litigation. Neches has testified as an expert in state and federal courts in Arizona, California, Florida, Missouri, Nevada, New York, and Oregon. He is a certified public accountant, accredited in business valuation, a certified valuation

analyst, and a certified fraud examiner. He received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from University of California, San Diego, and his master’s degree in operations research from UCLA.

Thomas Neches, CPA, CFE

Managing Partner

Thomas Neches & Company LLP

609 South Grand Avenue, Suite 1106

Los Angeles, California 90017-3848

E-mail: tmn@thomasneches.com

Web site: www.thomasneches.com

Telephone: 213-624-8150

Facsimile: 213-624-8152

Mobile: 213-448-7750

Table of Contents

Introduction

Fraud — the theft of assets from a company or individual through the manipulation and abuse of legitimate processes — exacts a heavy price every year. The cost of fraud cannot be measured simply in dollars; the damage it causes extends far beyond victims’ bank accounts. No one can measure lost opportunity, the effect of negative publicity on a company’s reputation, the human toll of anguish and stress, the decline in employee morale when a fraud is discovered, and the effect on our economy when investors lose confidence in the stock market. In 2009, high-profile fraud cases like the Ponzi schemes of Bernard Madoff and Arthur Nadel vividly illustrated the harm done to investors who placed their trust in these apparently successful money managers — and then discovered that their money had never been invested at all. News stories featured 90-year-olds being forced by necessity to work in supermarkets, elderly people losing their homes because their life savings were gone, and wealthy retirees suddenly finding themselves unable to pay their electricity bills. Charities were forced to curtail their services, lay off staff, and even close their doors forever as their funds evaporated. Almost every day, there are stories in the media about dishonest employees who have robbed their organizations of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not so well-publicized are the countless smaller thefts occurring every day from cash registers, warehouses, and business bank accounts. Sadly, the organizations that have the most to lose — small businesses, family-run companies, churches, and charities — are often the most vulnerable because of their size and inexperience.

Ponzi scheme

A Ponzi scheme is an investment scam in which money from new investors is used to pay off earlier investors and hide the fact that no investment is being made at all. Although Ponzi schemes have existed in some form for centuries, they are named after Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant who perpetrated a notorious scheme that duped 40,000 investors from 1919 to 1920. A Ponzi scheme requires a constant stream of new investors and is destined to collapse when payouts exceed available funds. A pyramid scheme is a more complex form of Ponzi scheme in which the perpetrator employs feeders who recruit increasing numbers of new investors.

Fraud has existed since commerce began and will continue to occur as long as there is something to be gained by it. Financial fraud is often referred to as occupational fraud because it involves abuse of the responsibilities associated with a job or occupation. Professional fraud examiners responding to a survey conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) estimated that in 2007, U.S. businesses and organizations lost 7 percent of their annual revenues because of occupational fraud. Seven percent of the projected U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2008 would amount to approximately $994 billion in losses. Fraud could be taking place anywhere, in any organization, at any time. It is in the interest of all businesses to discourage would-be perpetrators from committing fraud and to detect fraud quickly when it does occur.

Fraud weakens the economy. Government regulators are increasingly concerned with preventing and detecting fraud in publicly traded companies because the proper functioning of the U.S. capital markets depends on the reliability of financial statements. Corporate executives are concerned with fraud prevention not only because fraud causes immediate financial losses, but because it can result in costly litigation and penalties. Public exposure of fraud within an organization destroys investor confidence and drops the value of company stock. Business owners must control and prevent fraud to avoid loss of revenue and ensure the business remains viable. When a business loses money because of fraud, its investors lose not only their dividends, but the profit they could have earned if that stolen money had instead been invested in improving and expanding the business.

When deciding whether to invest in a company, investors rely on financial statements to evaluate the financial stability of a company and its potential for future growth. Fraudulent financial statements rob investors by artificially inflating the prices at which they buy shares of company stock and by misleading them into investing in a failing business. Though government regulations mandate honesty in the financial statements of publicly traded companies, individual investors bear the responsibility of protecting themselves by carefully examining these statements for signs of fraud or deception.

Many business managers are under the mistaken impression that fraud can be prevented by implementing a strict system of financial controls, inventory checks, and regular audits. But fraud, by nature, is difficult to detect because it often involves exploitation of just such a system by those who know best how to circumvent it. Even when strict controls are in place, company employees are so thoroughly familiar with any weaknesses in company procedures that they are able to disguise their illegal activities, at least for a period of time. Dishonest employees will always seek new ways to take advantage of their positions for personal gain. The detection and prevention of fraud is much more than a mathematical exercise; it incorporates elements of psychology, common sense, and intuition.

Though no scientific evidence is available yet, many experts believe that recent developments in technology have increased the likelihood and occurrence of fraud. The introduction of computerized supply-chain programs, Internet banking, and computerized financial and inventory systems has provided new opportunities for cyber-theft and increased the incidence of credit card fraud. In addition, easy access to online gambling and pornography has strengthened the possibility that a company employee will be embroiled in financial difficulties and become motivated to commit fraud. The ability to buy and sell stocks online has greatly increased the number of individuals who manage their own investments and are therefore vulnerable to manipulations of stock prices. At the same time, some of these technological developments have made it easier to investigate fraud by creating electronic trails of bank transactions, and to detect it by automatically monitoring large quantities of data for irregular activity.

The first chapters of this book explore occupational fraud, the circumstances under which it occurs, and the ways in which it is detected. The second part discusses various types of fraud including asset misappropriation, fraudulent disbursements, and corruption, and how each one can be detected and prevented. The chapters that follow will help both senior management and investors detect financial statement fraud. The last chapters in the book discuss fraud prevention: how to conduct a fraud risk assessment, establish a code of ethics for an organization, and create a corporate culture that discourages illegal activity. Learn how to establish strong internal controls, conduct a fraud investigation when irregularities have been discovered, and decide when you need the services of a professional fraud investigator. You will also learn how technology is being used to monitor accounting systems and detect fraud. Throughout the book, you will find Straight from the Headlines sections, which recall real-life examples of fraud cases. Case studies by professionals highlight some of the current concerns in the rapidly-developing field of fraud detection and prevention.

This book is intended to familiarize you with all aspects of fraud detection and prevention and give you basic knowledge to help protect your financial assets. If you are dealing with a large-scale fraud case or one that might have serious legal implications, and need to seek professional assistance, this book will prepare you to communicate effectively with fraud investigators, auditors, and lawyers. At the end of the book, you will find a list of resources for further research.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Defining and Measuring Fraud

The legal definition of fraud contains four elements: It is intentional, involves falsification of records or information regarding some material point, misrepresents the truth, and causes harm to its victim(s). Fraud can harm a victim materially by causing financial losses, or in other ways, such as rigging the results of an election, damaging a person’s reputation, or misleading a person into making a bad decision based on erroneous information. Accounting fraud encompasses a variety of activities that cause economic harm to customers, businesses, and business owners (including investors). It includes theft and embezzlement, corruption, use of company resources for personal benefit, and the willful misrepresentation of a company’s financial status.

Fraud prevention is an element of every organization’s accounting procedures and business policies. In order to use their resources effectively in implementing fraud prevention measures, managers and executives need to be able to assess risk, identify weaknesses, and set priorities. Fraud is difficult to measure and quantify because it occurs in such a variety of forms, and because it is largely hidden. No one knows how many cases of fraud remain undiscovered. When a fraud is detected, many companies choose not to prosecute the perpetrator, preferring to settle out of court or impose their own disciplinary measures, rather than attract negative attention in the media. Various academics and professional associations have conducted studies of fraud, but often this research is not updated on a regular basis. In 1995, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) began collecting data from its members and presenting it at regular intervals in a Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse. These reports can be found online at www.acfe.com/resources/publications.asp?copy=rttn. Though this report includes only a representative number of cases, it provides a valuable snapshot of the incidence of fraud by industry, company size, and occupation. It also reveals how fraud is detected, how organizations respond to fraud, and the effect of internal controls on the detection and on the length of time that frauds continue before being discovered.

Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

In his book, Corporate Fraud Handbook: Prevention and Detection, Joseph T. Wells, an accountant and criminologist, describes how discussions with sociologists and criminologists Donald R. Cressey, Dr. Stephen Albrecht, and other colleagues during the 1970s and 1980s gave rise to the concept of a certified fraud examiner — a person trained in accounting, law, investigation, and criminology, who would be prepared to deal with complex financial crimes. In 1988, Wells founded the ACFE to provide anti-fraud education and training. Today, the ACFE has almost 50,000 members worldwide and offers seminars, conferences, and educational materials. It administers the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) program and has established the Anti-Fraud Education Partnership to promote anti-fraud education in universities and colleges.

In 1993, the ACFE began to gather detailed information on occupational fraud and, in 1996, produced its first Report to the Nation. To compile the report, members of the ACFE were asked to fill out a survey detailing any one of the cases they had investigated during a particular time frame. Later studies were published in 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008. Starting with the 2006 study, participants were asked to report on the largest fraud case they had investigated. They were also asked to estimate the extent of occupational fraud based on their personal experiences. Their reports provide a representative snapshot of occupational fraud. The number of cases analyzed for each report ranges between 500 and 1200. These detailed studies provide valuable information about the characteristics of fraud perpetrators, the types and sizes of the frauds they commit, how the frauds were discovered, how employers responded to the instances of fraud, and the effectiveness of various types of fraud controls.

Insights from the 2008 ACFE Report to the Nation are presented throughout this book. The 2008 Report analyzes data from 959 occupational fraud cases investigated between January 2006 and February 2008.

Occupational Fraud

Occupational fraud is the use of one’s occupation to conduct illegal activities for direct or indirect personal gain. The ACFE’s 1996 Report to the Nation identified four elements characterizing occupational fraud:

Occupational fraud violates an employee’s fiduciary duties to an organization

Every employee in an organization, from the lowest position to the highest, has a responsibility to contribute materially to the business or purpose of the organization. A cashier is responsible for protecting the cash drawer, counting out change accurately, and submitting all the proceeds at the end of the day. A sales representative with an expense account is expected to use company funds only for legitimate expenses incurred while representing the company, and to provide receipts and an accurate expense report. A chief financial officer (CFO) should monitor the accounting systems at a company, implement sound financial policies, and ensure the company is in compliance with accepted accounting practices. A buyer is employed to negotiate the best possible prices and purchase materials of an acceptable standard and quality. Whenever an employee deviates from his or her job responsibilities and acts for personal gain in a way that causes financial losses to the organization, this is fraud.

Occupational fraud is concealed and clandestine

Any employee can make an honest mistake, and that mistake will soon become apparent when accounts do not reconcile or money is found to be missing. A dishonest employee manipulates company accounts in some way to cover up the fact that money is being stolen. The theft may go undetected for long periods because the employee knows how to circumvent the company’s policies and procedures.

Occupational fraud directly or indirectly benefits the perpetrator

An employee may benefit directly by stealing cash from an employer, using company funds for personal expenses, or deliberately inflating sales figures in order to receive a higher bonus or commission. The perpetrator of a fraud may also benefit indirectly through activities such as granting favors to a vendor in exchange for a promise of future employment or altering a company’s financial statements to artificially inflate the price of the company’s stock and increase the value of his or her stock options.

Occupational fraud costs the employer or investor assets, revenues, or reserves

The defining characteristic of occupational fraud is that it causes a financial loss to the business or to its stakeholders. In cases of fraud, profit that should have been reinvested in the business or paid out as dividends to investors goes into the pockets of one or more dishonest individuals; inventory may be stolen, or investors might be duped into throwing their money away on a business venture that cannot earn the promised returns.

The ACFE classifies the hundreds of types of occupational fraud into three basic categories: corruption, asset misappropriation (theft), and fraudulent financial statements. Corruption is the abuse of the authority associated with a position in an organization for direct

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