Melanie Waghalter Johnson
Unit 4 Assignment 1
Professor Cynthia Waddell
ACC555: Fraud Examination
“How to Steal a Million Dollar Without Taking the Cash”

Seneca Staunton was an overwhelmed accounting clerk at Carlton Chemicals. His job was to deal with AR collection, customer service issues, process payments and keep the AR records straight. He was a quiet man who preferred to work alone than with others, and this was his down fall with Carlton Chemicals.
The only time that Seneca was vocal was when his department was audited. He would get upset and complain about the added work load caused by the auditors. He would delay getting reports and other paperwork to them causing issues with completing the audit itself. When the reports finally got to the head auditor there were discrepancies in the reports. The senior auditor took her concerns to Seneca’s boss, Max Fairchild, because the reports would not reconcile and she was concerned.
After being brought the discrepancies in the reports, Max spent several hours in trying to figure out what Seneca had done. He was unable to find if the money was missing by embezzlement or misapplied funds. All he knew at this point is that Seneca was the only one to apply the payments and that he was the one to answer the questions.
Waiting until the next afternoon, Max spoke with Seneca who immediately admitted that he had misapplied the funds, but had not stolen any of the money. Max had decided to write a reprimand on Seneca stating he had not followed proper procedure in applying the funds. Seneca asked for another chance and stated he would clean up accounts if given that chance. Together they came up with a plan to clean up that included adding temporary assistance, all future payments applied properly and monthly audits. Max left that day thinking he would see Seneca in a new light and attitude in the morning. He was