Fraud triangle
Sam Sharp is an accountant with a shady past. Suffice it to say that he owes some very unsavory characters a lot of money. Despite his past, Sam works hard at keeping up a strong professional image. He is a manager at Flowers and Associates, a fast-growing CPA firm. Sam is highly regarded around the office because he is a strong producer of client revenue. Indeed, on several occasions he exceeded his authority in establishing prices with clients. This is typically a partner’s job but who could criticize Sam, who is most certainly bringing in the business. Indeed, Sam is so good that he is able to pull off the following scheme. He bills clients at inflated rates and then reports the ordinary rate to his accounting firm. Say, for example, the normal charge for a job is $2,500. Sam will smooth talk the client, then charge him $3,000. He reports the normal charge of $2,500 to his firm and keeps the extra $500 for himself. He knows it isn’t exactly right. Even so, his firm gets its regular charges and the client willingly pays for the services rendered. He thinks to himself, as he pockets his ill-gotten gains, who is getting hurt anyway?
Required The text discusses three common features (conditions) that motivate ethical misconduct. Identify and explain each of the three features as they appear in the given scenario.
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Survey Of Accounting
- Identify the fraud triangle risk factor (Opportunity, Pressure, or Rationalization) in each situation. 1. The business has no cameras or security devices at its warehouse. 2. A worker sees other employees regularly take inventory for personal use. 3. Payroll manager feels she is greatly underpaid. 4. No one matches the cash in the register to receipts when shifts end. 5. Managers are expected to grow business or be fired. 6. Managers are told to make extreme cuts in expenses. Opportunity Rationalization Pressure Opportunity Pressure Pressurearrow_forwardMatch each situation with the fraud triangle factor (opportunity, financial pressure, or rationalization) that best describes it. (a). An employee has check-writing and -signing responsibilities for a small company, and is also responsible for reconciling the bank account. (b) An employee earns minimum wage at a firm that has reported record earnings for each of the last five years. (c) An employee has an expensive gambling habit. (d) An employee's monthly credit card payments are nearly 75% of her monthly earningsarrow_forwardCommercial Crimes Survey indicated that most of the times, the major commercial crimes are committed by the upper management especially the CEO and/or CFO. (a) Why do senior management overstate or understate business performance? Elaborate your answer. (b) Explain common ways in which business performance can be manipulated through financial statement fraud. Elaborate your answer.arrow_forward
- Due to the increase in number of financial scandals in the world, as the director of company X, you have to sensitise all the employees about the consequences of acts of corruption. How will you proceed?Support your answer by appropriate examples.arrow_forwardBelow are several statements about occupational fraud.1. For most large companies, occupational fraud is minimal and internal control procedures are unnecessary.2. Managers have a variety of reasons for manipulating the numbers in financial statements, such as maximizing their compensation, increasing the company’s stock price, and preserving their jobs.3. Internal control procedures include formal policies and procedures related to (1) safeguarding the company’s assets and (2) improving the accuracy and reliability of accounting information.4. “Cooking the books” is a phrase used by accountants to indicate the preparation of financial statements that are free of manipulation.5. Most occupational fraud cases involve misuse of the company’s resources.6. Common types of financial statement fraud include creating fictitious revenues from a fake customer, improperly valuing assets, hiding liabilities, and mismatching revenues and expenses.Required:State whether the answer to each of the…arrow_forwardTHE CONFUSED ACCOUNTANT Yvonne Pillar is a young accountant who came from a poor family. She was recently hired by a big company called Chameleon Co. When it was time to audit the accounting books of the company, Yvonne was instructed by her boss to manipulate the numbers in order to reduce taxes the company will have to pay the government. The company official said that if she would not heed the command, she would be terminated. The employment condition that time was really tight and the chances of finding another job are very minimal. Questions : 1.)if you were Yvonne Pillar, will you obey your boss? Why or why not? 2.) Are morally obligated to follow an order that is illegal?arrow_forward
- Fraud refers to any intentional act to achieve gain, usually monetary. Committing a fraud isunethical and resulting in bad consequences, not just to the perpetrator, but also others (e.g.shareholders, workers etc.). Several example of fraud scenario are listed as follows:i). Store manager misused company’s car for personal purpose because he is the onlyperson that monitor the movement and usage of the car.ii). The accountant and the store keeper of AAA Enterprise co-operate in stealing thecompany’s inventory and they gain a lot of money from it.iii). The Chief Financial officer (CFO) of ABC Sdn Bhd had reported over $700,000 fakeearnings because he wants to achieve sales target.iv). XYZ Sdn Bhd booked revenues earlier than it should have because it was at risk ofmissing analyst estimates.Required;a. Identify the type of fraud committed in the scenario i). to iv). b. Based on the fraud triangle (i.e. pressure, opportunity and rationalization), identify thecause of fraud happen in the…arrow_forwardCategorize the situation as primarily indicating 1 - an incentive to commit fraud 2 - an opportunity to commit fraud 3- a rationalization for committing fraud state the reasoning behind the category you choose Scenario: A group of top-level management was compensated (mostly in form of stock-options) well in excess of what would be considered normal for their positions in this industryarrow_forwardif a manager is incharge of the Credit Right Software Corp department which involves sells leading account sooftare product and two of his employess commited fraud. How should the manager prepare himself to understand what causes individuals to commit fraud and how it happens?arrow_forward
- When a representative of an organization gives money to another business official in order to gain favor and/or manipulate a business decision, this is known as ______________. whistleblowing bribery buyer debits face valuearrow_forwardCASE: You are a fraud expert and have been asked to investigate possible wrongdoing at a local nonprofit organization. You suspect that one of the workers, Stacey, has been embezzling money. After securing enough evidence to be very confident of Stacey's guilt, you speak with the president of the organization, Jamie. Jamie assures you that Stacey could be doing nothing wrong, that she has known Stacey for years, and Stacey is a good person. Further, she indicates that because of her relationship with Stacey, even if something were going wrong, no action would be taken with respect to the potential fraud. QUESTIONS: 1)How do you respond to Jamie? How do you explain to her what is at stake? 2) What monitoring and control systems should have been in place at Jamie's organization to prevent such a behavior? Explain. 3)Would you recommend an ethics audit to this company? Why?arrow_forwardThis corporate con stated that she stole from the company because she believed it was "okay" to take the money because there wasn't any actual person she was stealing from, and it was right because she was being underpaid. According to the fraud triangle, her reasoning is most closely associated with O Availability Rationalization O Need/Motivation O Opportunityarrow_forward
- Principles of Accounting Volume 2AccountingISBN:9781947172609Author:OpenStaxPublisher:OpenStax CollegeAuditing: A Risk Based-Approach (MindTap Course L...AccountingISBN:9781337619455Author:Karla M Johnstone, Audrey A. Gramling, Larry E. RittenbergPublisher:Cengage Learning