...2008, Madoff admitted to the federal authorities that the wealth management branch of his business, Ascott Partners, was a full on and elaborate Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors. Over the course of nearly two decades, Madoff took an estimated 65 billion dollars from his investor’s fortunes. What made Bernie Madoff successful in his fraudulent ways was the façade put up by the general public of being highly respected, well established, and an esteemed financial extraordinaire. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission caught a lot of heat for failing to investigate Madoff extensively and thoroughly. Madoff ended up being found guilty of eleven federal crimes and sentenced to 150 years in prison with restitution costs at around seventeen billion. The fallout from his master scheme went far deeper than anyone would have expected, as some of the businesses he had invested in and vice versa, were forced to close down temporarily. Enron was an energy company based in Houston, Texas. The scandal that happened within Enron is considered to be one of the most notorious in American history. It all started when the executives within Enron were granted with government deregulation. This deregulation allowed for Enron to maintain full ownership of the earnings reports that were sent to their investors and employees. This opened the door for their earnings reports...
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...CASE STUDY #1 | The Function of Accounting Information Systems in the Enron and Bernard Madoff Fraud Cases | | | | | | | What is the definition of accounting information system? The Core Concepts of Accounting Information Systems textbook defines accounting information system “as a collection of data and processing procedures that creates needed information for its users” (Bagranoff, 2010). A key factor in determining the success in an organization is its accounting information system. It is the combination of the organization’s resources, such as its people, procedures, and business records that it (the organization) maintains to provide financial data. The basis of this case study is to disagree with the question of whether or not accounting information systems played a role in the Enron and Bernard Madoff fraud cases. All organizations should have an adequate, effective, and efficient accounting information system in tack. In my opinion, the Enron and Bernard Madoff fraud cases had the classic signs of pure greed; the accounting information systems were perhaps manipulated, ignored, and compromised to financially suit the personal gains of the individuals involved and did not assist with the cases. An important part of the accounting information system is its internal control system. Internal controls are methods and procedures used by an organization to safeguard assets, authorize transactions, and ensure accuracy of the accounting records...
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...from blowing the whistle, aside from that is the risk really worth it? The answer is yes. In spite of the negative employment aspect, whistle blowing shows that a person has enough integrity to risk themselves in order to correct a bad situation. Three whistle blowers come to mind when the topic of ethical integrity arises; Sherron Watkins (Enron), Harry Markopolos (Bernie Madoff), and myself in my current place of employment. Each of us took the ethical high road and risked it all to try and make right what was/is blatantly wrong with the companies or people in question. Watkins & Enron Sherron Watkins worked at Enron for eight years. She sent a seven page letter to her employer mentioning the unethical accounting that was happening in the employee retirement sector. Sherron called it a Ponzi Scheme and worried that those who were making money off other people’s retirement would end up cashing and burning when this scam came to light. Watkins called this unethical treatment of worker’s savings “funny accounting”. She feared that her time at Enron would be considered worthless on her resume. However, when the dealings of Enron finally hit the main stream media, Watkins was still working. Her letter reached the public five months after sending it to her boss, and she continued work at the company....
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...When Charles Ponzi came to America from Italy in the 1920s, not even he could have thought that his name would become the word to describe a swindler, a huckster, and a crook. Many Ponzi schemes, including the Bernie Madoff one, have resulted in untold investor losses, murders, and suicides. It also fanned the flames of mistrust amongst everyday investors, who will never invest in the stock markets again. The paradox in this is that these investors will be at the beck and call of the banks, pushing deposit products that make no money and are destroyed by higher taxes and inflation. The date was September 15, 2008. I was grinding through my daily work out in my home gym. The TV was on and suddenly, a newswire story broke that Lehman Brothers,...
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...Forensic Accountants: Fraud Busters Strayer University Business 508 August 11, 2013 Abstract The paper will determine the five important skills a forensic accountant must possess and describe their role within a courtroom environment. It will also analyze the legal responsibility of the accountant while serving its clients business. Giving two examples where a forensic accountant played an important role in aiding attorneys in presenting fraudulent bookkeeping records of company’s who ultimately committed white-collar crimes. Have you ever heard the figure of speech a “needle in a haystack” when referring to finding a small object in a large setting? The task of performing a very detailed search seems impossible. Leaving no stone unturned and demanding hours and hours of mental and manual labor. This is what a forensic accountant faces. By definition, a forensic investigation of any kind is conducted with the purpose of obtaining evidence that will be used in a court case. Forensic accounting is simply the analysis of financial documents use as tax returns, bank statements, canceled checks and the like, in search of proof of a criminal act, be it tax evasion, running numbers, embezzlement, money laundering, fraud by wire or securities fraud (DiGabriele, 2009). These crimes exists for the sole purpose of illegally making money. Leaving a paper trail pointing to criminal activity producing money coming into and leaving the organization...
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...Licensed to: iChapters User Licensed to: iChapters User Fraud Examination, Fourth Edition W. Steve Albrecht Chad O. Albrecht Conan C. Albrecht Mark F. Zimbelman VP/Editorial Director: Jack W. Calhoun Editor-in-Chief: Rob Dewey Sr. Acquisitions Editor: Matt Filimonov Associate Developmental Editor: Julie Warwick Editorial Assistant: Ann Mazzaro Marketing Manager: Natalie Livingston Marketing Coordinator: Nicole Parsons Content Project Management: PreMediaGlobal Sr. Manufacturing Buyer: Doug Wilke Production House/Compositor: PreMediaGlobal © 2012, 2009 South-Western, Cengage Learning ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706. For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at www.cengage.com/permissions Further permissions questions can be e-mailed to permissionrequest@cengage.com Library of Congress Control Number: 2010940986 ISBN-13:...
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...ARTICLE SYNOPSIS In your own words, summarize the article. This article talks about whether or not the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the laws that came along with it were the right solutions for the issues that came out of the WorldCom and Enron bankruptcies. It discusses how different sized businesses are affected by different rules and legislature and the outcomes that arose in which different companies would have to follow because of the SOX act. The author of this article did studies on if fraud of the financial statements had anything do with businesses filing for bankruptcy, this being the case with WorldCom and Enron. The author concluded that the bigger the company that filed, it was more likely general overstatement and fraud litigation occurred. LEGAL ISSUE In 1 to 3 sentences, identify the legal business issues raised in the article. Legal issues were everywhere in this article. One example with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 going into place, Companies could choose to no longer be publically traded just so that they didn’t have to follow the SOX act. This article also explains whether or not it is right to make smaller companies adhere to the same rules and regulations as the larger companies do, just like WorldCom and Enron as mentioned before. MANAGERIAL PERSPECTIVE Discuss how the legal issues affect business. For example, could the problems have been avoided? Explain. Discuss realistic solutions supported by sound legal and business principles. One...
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...embellished Ponzi scheme the world has ever seen. The basis of the securities fraud that took place approximately between 1991 – 2008 was influenced by Bernie Madoff’s reliance upon an unqualified staff, outdated software, organizational seclusion, a personal halo effect, and weaknesses in the regulating body. Madoff had the confidence of the public, yet to pull off such an elaborate scheme, he relied on a startling number of family members, vital accomplices working on the illegal trading floor such as Frank D. Pascali, IT staff members, and a separate BMIS branch of international employees in the U.K. to seemingly legitimize the whole thing. Domestic and European institutional investors, friends and acquaintances of Madoff’s, and an additional couple of thousand people who had exposure to BMIS funds, trusted as much as their entire life or retirement savings. Investors were dumbfounded when the jenga-like pyramid came crashing down on them, despite many caveats from whistleblowers. Leading up to December 11, 2008, the date Bernie Madoff was taken into federal custody, he acted especially cross and frantic, specifically when the SEC was mentioned. Another sign of the impending collapse was Bernie’s reluctance to accept any more large sums of money, contrast to the usually receptive Bernie (Henriques). As a result of Madoff’s arrest, further investigation assessed the magnitude of the fraud to be over roughly fifty billion dollars. Madoff took full responsibility for the Ponzi scheme...
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...Ponzi Scheme Keller Graduate School Forensics Accounting The Bernie Madoff scam truly made history. Bernie Madoff probably would not have been able to prolong this scam without the continued help of the Accounting Firm of Friehling & Horowitz CPAs PC, who at last reported purported to audit financial statements and disclosures of Madoff firm for the last 17 years. Ponzi schemed to help Madoff by trying to go undetected because of Friehling deceiving investors and regulators by declaring that Madoff enterprise had clean audit records. Ponzi’s scheme enabled Madoff by falsely stating in annual audit reports that F & H audited Madoff financial statements pursuant to GAAP, including the requirements to maintain auditor independence and perform audit procedures regarding custody of securities. F & H purported that the financial statements conformed to GAAP and the Friehling reviewed internal controls at Madoff firm. According to SEC complaint, Friehling knew that the firm regularly distributed the annual audit reports to Madoff customers, and that reports were filed with the SEC and other regulators. The complaint alleges these statements were “materially false”. The SEC alleges that Friehling merely pretended to conduct minimal audit procedures of certain accounts to make it appear that he was conducting an audit, and then failed to document his purported findings and conclusions as required under the GAAP. If properly stated those financial statements...
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...the pressures that white-collar professionals face every day in corporate world. Mr. Weinberg’s discussion at Rotman was extremely relevant to MBA students because of the main narrator’s background: Pavlo was a young MBA who had a promising career at MCI until he took the wrong step on a mud slide of accounting scams that ultimately cost him not only his career but also his freedom, family, reputation and self-respect. According to Weinberg’s research, white-collar criminals are not just ordinary people; they are smart, well-educated and ambitious. They often start as wide-eye fresh graduates at large corporations of which profit-driven culture infiltrates all levels within. Some of them were even chosen as CFOs of the year: Andrew Fastow (Enron) and Scott D. Sullivan (Worldcom). So why do they turn out to be the thieves stealing from the economy $2.5 trillion per year? Weinberg argues that these people, like Pavlo, do not just wake up one day and decide to commit in a greed-inspired fraud. In fact, only 7% of perpetrators have prior conviction. They operate business under the performance pressure from investors, stockholders and Wall Street professionals. They execute mega mergers which present opportunities for companies to hide flaws and falsify earnings at multiple levels. Somehow along the line of conducting legal but unethical business, they find their ways to the dark side. Weinberg presents a triangle of Need/Incentives, Opportunity, and Rationalization as a combined force...
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...Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s Impact on Corporate Business Business scandals, Ponzi schemes and fraud are something we have all heard of. Over the years there have been many accounting scams from companies all over the world. We all remember one of the most publicized cases of fraud, Enron. For many years there has been fraudulent activity in many companies. Sarbanes-Oxley was established to prevent these types of scandals. Some believe it is not as valuable as once predicted, but is anything 100% preventable? Prior to Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission was in place since 1934. It was established to police U.S. financial markets. However after years of failure and proof that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s wasn’t enough, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was born. In 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act was created by Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley. Several large company failures not only sparked the public on fraud activity, but also these two gentlemen who decided to put into place something that would enforce financial honesty in businesses. There are several layers to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. ,For example section 404 requires companies to have internal control report with their annual audits. This section of Sarbanes-Oxley also puts accountability and personal liability on the accounting teams of the companies. The infamous Enron scandal unraveled itself in 2001. Enron marketed gas and electricity among other public utilities. They were the...
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...Enron, Hurricane Katrina Examples of Leadership Gone Wrong Poor crisis leadership was on display after Hurricane Katrina and during the financial crisis The New Orleans masses who huddled in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, the Enron retirees who lost their life savings, and the laid-off workers buried under the economic ruin of financial companies all live with a simple truth. Just as spectacularly as great leadership can spark success, failed leadership can bring down cities, businesses, and economies. The collapse of major financial companies starting with Bear Stearns, the stunningly botched reaction to Katrina, the inept federal response to tips about Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and the financial sleight of hand that brought down Enron are only the latest examples of leadership failure. "We keep making the same stupid mistakes, generation after generation," says William Baker, who holds a doctorate in industrial psychology and is the journalist in residence at Fordham University. Many of the most stunning leadership disasters have common ingredients, such as executives who lack integrity and build organizational cultures where dissent isn't heard. "Leadership is not position. It's moral authority. Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect," says Stephen Covey, author of several bestselling books on leadership and self-improvement, including The 7 Habits of Highly Effective...
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...is an infamous line from the movie Spiderman, and even though it is cliché, I’ve always found that to be very true. Power and responsibility can be explored through Phillip Zimbardo’s “The Lucifer Effect”, and how his work is related to two major financial scandals of the 21st century, which involve Enron and Bernard Madoff. In both scandals, there were people in a position of power who carried a surmounting level of responsibility, but used their power in very manipulative ways for their own personal gain. The high level executives of Enron and Bernard Madoff were on a rampant quest for money, which was the key driver that led to a lot of destruction. In doing so, both Enron and Madoff acted with major lack of responsibility. It is easy to make the assumption that the aforementioned individuals in both scandals are clearly the one’s that will be held responsible for the mess they made, but it is interesting to see how through their power they shed as much responsibility as they could on other people. Their power also had an effect on a greater scale involving their control over many people, which is relatable to Phillip Zimbardo’s work on human nature. The film, “Enron: The Smartest Men in Room”, shows how there was such a great lack of responsibility by the people involved because of their determination to make as much money as possible, whether it was legally or illegally, and did so with their position of power. The film portrays “responsibility” in a way that shows...
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...Accounting Fraud Examination By: Wagner October 12, 2011 Introduction As we look back on the first decade of the 21st Century, we see that Corporate America and the Financial Markets were riddled with corruption and fraud. At the beginning of the decade we saw the likes of Enron and WorldCom become insolvent due to accounting frauds of epic proportions. The one case that stands out amongst all of them is the Bernard Madoff case, which is considered to be the largest fraud case of all time. “Madoff managed to lure billions of dollars away from huge charities, as well as wealthy individuals in both the United States and Europe by getting them to invest in his hedge fund. He did so by claiming extraordinary returns (generally in the low double digits). His scheme eventually reached a staggering $50 billion under "management" (Armstrong, 2008). Mr. Madoff was born on April 29, 1938; he graduated from Far Rockaway High School in 1956. He then enrolled in Hofstra University Law School from which he did not graduate. In 1960 he created Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BMIS) with initial capital of $5000 (Gagnier, 2008). In the years to come his firm became ranked as “one of the top money markets on the NASDAQ” (Gregoriou, et al, 2009). He was described as “a man that had an impeccable reputation on Wall Street. Investing with him was an exclusive privilege, a clear sign that one had made it socially. Bernard Madoff was a legend” (Gregoriou, et al, 2009)...
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...important Five Skills that a Forensic Accountant Needs to Possess. The down slope in the economy has driven a new demand of accountants in the job market. The economy is at all-time low so the government is scrutinizing and penalizing businesses for inappropriate accounting scandals. Recent incidents of fraud have been noted in the media weekly. The new field of accountants has companies like Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom to thank for their new demand. The employees of these companies have plot, planned and manipulated the system. They have used schemes like the Ponzi schemes, embezzlement, false advertising, and Spanish prisoners. Fraud Investigators go beyond just criminal charges in court they are also used in family court. They use their skills when couples are getting a divorce; martial fraud is used when spouses don’t show all their assets. (Marden and Darner, 2006) The mystic new field forensic accountants are called in to investigate businesses for white collar crimes. Forensic accountant’s job is to investigate business fraud, incorrect financial reporting, and illegal investment schemes. Professionals interested in obtaining a job in forensic accounting have to process the following skills: Effective written/oral communication skills, strategic critical thinking, financial knowledge and background, and leadership skills, professional and ethical behavior. (Wells. 2003) It is important that professionals have these skills in order to meet the growing number of fraud cases...
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