Summary Of The Koss Embezzlement Cases

679 Words2 Pages

Collecting, analyzing, and evaluating evidential matter lies at the heart of the work of forensic accountants. Forensic accountants wear many hats, including identifying issues, gathering information and documentation, analyzing data, and reporting their findings. Forensic accountants are typically involved in many areas of financial disputes and investigations, including but not limited to fraud investigations, construction claims, bankruptcy, business valuation, expert testimony, personal injury, wrongful death, and more. Communication skills, objectivity, an investigative mentality, and an understanding of the rules of evidence are all necessary facets for a forensic accountant. Therefore, while detecting fraud in the process of covering such large areas, forensic accountants face many problems. Often, they buy new cars. They sometimes buy other expensive toys, take vacations, remodel their homes or move into more expensive houses, buy expensive jewelry or clothes, or just start spending more money on food and other day-to-day living expenses." This was exactly the situation with Sue Sachdeva. The book states that lifestyle changes are the easiest of all symptoms to detect, yet they went unnoticed at Koss Corp. However, one can only find the signs if they are proactively looking for them. In the article "Defending Koss And Their Auditors: Just Loopy Distorted Feedback," the author describes why the signs were missed. They went unnoticed in the company's books and annual audit. According to the author, the problem wasn't the large volume of the mid-sized firm; it was the lack of assessment of the effectiveness of Koss's internal controls by auditors and the lack of management oversight of the financial reporting. As Chapter 11 mentions, Sue Sachdeva perceived an opportunity due to the lack of oversight and segregation of duties. In cases like these, it becomes difficult for forensic accountants to prove the suspect guilty as those are not considered criminal activities.

Open Document