1. The auditors in the ZZZZ Best case should be held liable for failing to uncover the fraud. It is the auditors responsibility to exercise due care and to investigate any red flags found during the audit process. AS 12 requires auditors to identify and assess risks to material misstatements. An examination of ZZZZ Bests internal controls should have exposed weaknesses that would have instituted further investigations. AS 15 requires the auditor to obtain sufficient audit evidence. In the ZZZZ Best case, the sole practitioner auditor relied solely on forged paperwork. If the auditor had ever visited an insurance restoration site it would have become obvious that the setup was a fraud. Even though ZZZZ Best was clearly engaged in illegal …show more content…
Customers were overcharged, banks were misled and $1 million in loans went unpaid, and shareholders lost their money. Minkow worked as a pastor and used church money for his business and most likely stole money as well. He lied to auditors, lawyers, bankers, and others who he interacted with professionally. Minkow destroyed almost $1 billion of value in Lennar stock, causing damage to both the company and shareholders. Stakeholders relied on Minkow to act in an ethical and professional manner. Not only was a lot of financial harm perpetrated, but also he probably did a great deal of damage to the trust of those around him. Case 5-4 1. Auditors have an ethical responsibility to ensure that the financial statements are presented fairly. Auditors are also responsible for “detecting material fraud and reporting it to the board of directors.” (Mintz, p. 152) An assessment of business risk will help auditors to determine if there is confidence that they can trust management to provide the information to adequately complete the audit. If there is too much business risk, there is a good change that the auditor may not be able to meet their ethical obligations. 2. There are several problems with the integrity of Jost
Ethics plays a vital role in developing accurate and high quality financial statements for management, financial institutions, and investors. As management utilizes financial statements to make decisions regarding the operations of the business, it is necessary to review accurate financial statements to make strategic decisions about the future of the organization. Investors and financial institutions require accurate financial statements to make informed decisions upon whether to invest funds into the organization or the wisdom of lending funds to said organization.
On the surface, the motives behind decisions and events leading to Enron’s downfall appear simple enough: individual and collective greed born in an atmosphere of market euphoria and corporate arrogance. Hardly anyone—the company, its employees, analysts or individual investors—wanted to believe the company was too good to be true. So, for a while, hardly anyone did. Many kept on buying the stock, the corporate mantra and the dream. In the meantime, the company made many high-risk deals, some of which were outside the company’s typical asset risk control process. Many went sour in the early months of 2001 as Enron’s stock price and debt rating imploded because of loss of investor and creditor trust. Methods the company used to disclose its complicated financial dealings were all wrong and downright deceptive. The company’s lack of accuracy in reporting its financial affairs, followed by financial restatements disclosing billions of dollars of omitted liabilities and losses, contributed to its downfall. The whole affair happened under the watchful eye of Arthur Andersen LLP, which kept a whole floor of auditors assigned at Enron year-round.
The risk that the auditor or audit firm will suffer harm after the audit is completed, even though the audit report was correct,
However, circumstances changed “in cases in which an auditor fails to establish that applicable auditing standards were followed” (Zack 2011). Since WoolEx Mills’ auditors failed to properly identify the fraud risks that caused the material misstatements, they would be in breach of professional duty to shareholders. Litigation would mostly be pursued by WoolEx Mills’ shareholders, WoolEx Mills, third parties impacted by the auditors services, creditors, and other parties who rely on WoolEx Mills financial statements. Each plaintiff would have the right to sue the auditors for their negligence in performing the audit with due diligence. To prove a breach of contract, WoolEx Mills would need to provide the engagement letter as proof that the auditors did not peform the duties agreed upon. Additionally, WoolEx Mills’ auditors would be charged with either gross or ordinary negligence based on their deviation from proper auditing standards. Since the auditors failed to test the company’s internal controls, they would be found guilty of gross negligence. The auditors would be guilty of ordinary negligence if they forgot to complete a section of the vertical analysis of the Income Statement (Zack 2011) (Krishnan & Shah
Dennis Kozlowski was living his dream as a multimillionaire and if anyone got in the way of his dream to create his empire then they would be stepped on like a bug. This is what happened to Jeanne Terrile at Merrill Lynch. Terrile smelled something funny coming from Tyco and when she acknowledged that something was wrong, she was shut down quickly. Nobody knows for sure if Kozlowski paid off the CEO of Merrill Lynch, David Komansky, or not and nobody knows what they talked about. The fact is that Jeanne Terrile was replaced and the stock recommendation for Tyco soon changed after their talk. Terrile decided to do what she thought was right and make sure to notify people of what she thought of the company. Because of Terrile’s ethical decision
The three main crooks Chairman Ken Lay, CEO Jeff Skilling, and CFO Andrew Fastow, are as off the rack as they come. Fastow was skimming from Enron by ripping off the con artists who showed him how to steal, by hiding Enron debt in dummy corporations, and getting rich off of it. Opportunity theory is ever present because since this scam was done once without penalty, it was done plenty of more times with ease. Skilling however, was the typical amoral nerd, with delusions of grandeur, who wanted to mess around with others because he was ridiculed as a kid, implementing an absurd rank and yank policy that led to employees grading each other, with the lowest graded people being fired. Structural humiliation played a direct role in shaping Skilling's thoughts and future actions. This did not mean the worst employees were fired, only the least popular, or those who were not afraid to tell the truth. Thus, the corrupt culture of Enron was born. At one point, in an inter...
There can only be so many changes to the audit process to prevent fraud. Regardless of the regulations that one may enforce, the audit process still comes down to human opinion. In a case like Satyam, an auditor performing their job to the highest standard would have most likely caught Satyam eventually. As stated in the case, misstatement of cash is one of the easiest fraudulent activities to catch. Simply requesting bank statements verifies the cash that the company actually owns.
With every business activity come opportunities for fraudulent behavior which leads to a greater demand for auditors with unscathed ethics. Nowadays, auditors are faced with a multitude of ethical issues, and it is even more problematic when the auditors fail to adhere to the standards of professional conducts as prescribed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The objective of this paper is to analyze the auditors’ compliance with the code of professional conduct in the way it relates to the effectiveness of their audits.
ZZZZ Best was founded in 1982, by Barry Minkow who was 16 at the time. ZZZZ Best was a carpet cleaning business that was operated by going door-to-door. The business operated out of San Fernando Valley, Southern California in his parent’s garage. The business experienced drastic growth the first three years, bringing an income of no less than $200,000 however no more than $5 million. Prior to going public, ZZZZ Best experienced many struggles such as complaining customers, bank account closures, and bad checks. Therefore, in 1986, ZZZZ Best went public, the owner and his associates were millionaires immediately. Due to Barry’s immediate success he was sought after by many television networks. He appeared on Oprah and many other famous television shows. He sent a message to people that “the sky was the limit” and they could achieve anything. He was an attractive man and very charming. About two years after his appearance on Oprah, Barry was in prison serving a 25 year sentence, he was found guilty on 57 charges of security fraud. Once he was exposed, he was viewed as a fast talking swindler who took people’s money. Barry used his extensive social background to get what he wanted. He realized that his social connection could be used to his advantage. Many of his social connections came from the Los Angeles health club. One of his acquaintances, Tom Paige in particular was a claim’s adjuster, he came up with a scheme to use his relationship to his advantage. Barry created fraudulent insurance contracts to have proof of profit on paper to convince bankers to lend him money. Once he obtained loans he began to expand his business in Southern California. He used his falsified financial statements to attract wealthy indiv...
His project manager, Oliver Freeman, changed the analysis. that Daniel submitted in order to get a clear opinion so that their firm may get an exclusive account. The. My decision was to report the incident so that the correct information would be supplied in the audit documents. The decision I chose may cost Baker Greenleaf to lose an important client and Oliver Freeman to lose his job, but it will uphold the integrity of the accounting profession and keep Daniel Potter safe from the liability of providing false information.
Accounting ethics has been difficult to control as accountants and auditors must keep in mind the interest of the public while that they remain employed by the company they are auditing. The accountants should take into account how to best apply accounting standards when company faces issues related financial loss. The role of accountant is crucial to society. They serve as financial reporters to owe their primary constraint to public interest. The information provided is critical in aiding managers, investors and others in making crucial economic decisions. An accountant is responsible for any fraudulent financial reporting. Some examples of fraudulent reporting are:
The level of assurance that the audit report will offer should be foolproof in that it will cover all the risky areas. The report will make sure that the company is covered from an audit professional perspective. All the risk that may face the company in this regard will be covered completely (Turley, 1997).
Dennis Kozlowski, is the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tyco International Ltd. During his tenure, Kozlowski engaged in activities that were considered unethical. In 2005 Kozlowski was convicted of misappropriation of corporate funds. Kozlowski had been involved in illegal and unethical behavior during most of his tenure. The findings that lead to the conviction of the former CEO were due to the persistent questioning and interrogating tactics of the shareholders and stakeholders because Kozlowski held within his authority to make decisions that could change the course of the company. Business ethics, auditing practices, and government regulations will forever be affected by the $500 million loss endured by the company. Needless to say this scandal had an major impact on the economy and the business world.
The evolution of auditing is a complicated history that has always been changing through historical events. Auditing always changed to meet the needs of the business environment of that day. Auditing has been around since the beginning of human civilization, focusing mainly, at first, on finding efraud. As the United States grew, the business world grew, and auditing began to play more important roles. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, people began to invest money into large corporations. The Stock Market crash of 1929 and various scandals made auditors realize that their roles in society were very important. Scandals and stock market crashes made auditors aware of deficiencies in auditing, and the auditing community was always quick to fix those deficiencies. The auditors’ job became more difficult as the accounting principles changed, and became easier with the use of internal controls. These controls introduced the need for testing; not an in-depth detailed audit. Auditing jobs would have to change to meet the changing business world. The invention of computers impacted the auditors’ world by making their job at times easier and at times making their job more difficult. Finally, the auditors’ job of certifying and testing companies’ financial statements is the backbone of the business world.
Damages done by the fraud to any organization can be huge if not prevented. The main role of internal auditors in an organization is the detection and then prevention of fraudulent activity that is why the organizations are paying for them. Some fraud activities have happened in the Ajax Export Corporation. The fraud is done by accounts payable clerk with a quantity of $18,000 by writing checks to herself and charging the expense to miscellaneous account/ expense. This process according to the examination has occurred over the period of three years. The issues which are addressed may have the following recommendations.