Premium Essay

How to Incorporate the Fraud Triangle Theory

In:

Submitted By zyedwin
Words 797
Pages 4
The term of “fraud triangle” was developed by Dr. Donald Cressey, a criminologist who studied embezzlers. The three basic elements of fraud triangle include perceived pressure, perceived opportunity, and the ability to rationalize. It explains the nature of many fraud offenders and also become a tool to assess the risk of fraud. It is important to companies to incorporate the fraud triangle theory in order to reduce the risk of fraud within their organization. From my standpoint, companies should incorporate the fraud triangle from the following aspects.
First, companies should perform background investigation in order to uncover the perceived pressure. The factors that create pressure include personal financial pressure (high levels of debts and poor credit rating), addictions such as drugs, gambling, and lifestyle issues such as living beyond one's means. According to Bliss (2012), “auditors and fraud examiners generally consider pressure and rationalization to be internal qualities that can't be seen or assessed. Resources are focused on opportunity, which can be reduced with internal controls.” As a consequence, companies should focus more on risk prevention. They can uncover some undesirable personal traits in advance, when they are making hiring decision. If the management understands the motivation of an offender, several background checks could be useful in preventing fraud. For instance, “the civil records search can find information on any non-criminal litigation. This includes any civil lawsuits, including product liability suits, civil rights violations, nonpayment of goods, or any litigation related to divorce, marriage and child custody.” (Fink, Gillett & Robinson, 2008) If such information is used in making employment decisions, it should definitely be considered as a caveat because the applicant’s potential motivation raises the risk of fraud.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Audit

...Fraud Auditing and Different type of fraud Introduction Over the years, the role of auditors become increasingly important especially in a capitalist economy as the process of wealth creation and political stability depends heavily upon confidence in processes of accountability and how well the expected roles are being fulfilled. An auditor has the responsibility for the prevention, detection and reporting of fraud, other illegal acts and errors is one of the most controversial issues in auditing. The most frequently debated areas amongst auditors, politicians, media, regulators and the public is where the fraud is coming from and by whom. This disagreement has been especially tinted by the collapse of big corporations like Enron and WorldCom. The unforeseen fall of Enron and WorldCom traumatized the world as both of these companies received clean bills of health from their auditors immediately prior to their for bankruptcy. Type of fraud Fraud itself comprises a large variety of activities and includes bribery, political corruption, business and employee fraud, consumer theft; network hacking, bankruptcy and divorce fraud, and identity theft. Many find it helpful to separate between internal and external fraud. Internal fraud is usually found by internal auditors. In the Statement of Auditing Standards 99, it’s defines fraud as an intentional act that results in a material misstatement in financial statements. There are two types of fraud considered: misstatements arising...

Words: 2588 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Individual Assignment

...MACC-663-OL1 Paul Zikmund Due Date: Sep.15th Individual assignment 2 “The Fraud Triangle is a model for explaining the factors that cause someone to commit occupational fraud”; it is widely used within business companies. It consists of three components that, together, lead to fraudulent behavior. Those three factors that must be present at the same time in order for an ordinary person to commit fraud: pressure, opportunity and rationalization. Michael D. Frenza has mentioned it in his article “Fraud perpetrators usually have a non-sharable pressure, they recognize a perceived opportunity, and then they rationalize their actions”. It is so important for companies to incorporate the fraud triangle theory in order to reduce the risk of misconduct within their organization. A company must recognize the common elements in most fraud cases. Once an employee has a pressure, they must find an opportunity to remedy their problem. There are a lot of opportunities within the companies for them. For example, the weak internal controls that fail to prevent, lack of management by top managers, irregular of auditors. When they take the advantage of those opportunities, they rationalize their actions. Most of them don’t realize they are Criminals. They all have one common sense that they will pay back money later to make up the economic losses. It seems like not a big deal for them. The pressure component of the Fraud Triangle is not easily controlled by companies. Therefore, it is important for...

Words: 650 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Articles

...Hogan, C.E., Z. Rezaee, R.A. Riley Jr., and U.K. Velury (2008). Financial Statement Fraud: Insights from the Academic Literature. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 27 (2): 231-252. 1. There is a significant amount of literature on the characteristics of fraud firms, providing support for the fraud triangle classifications and the list of “red flags” used in both SAS No. 82 and SAS No. 99. a. Pressures to meet analysts’ forecasts, rapid growth, compensation incentives, stock options, the need for financing, and poor performance increase the likelihood of fraudulent financial reporting. b. Effective corporate governance, including the board of directors, audit committee, and internal controls, and also the external auditor, play key roles in reducing the opportunity to commit fraud. c. Research is limited in the attitudes and rationalizations area. Based on the research, the focus areas of SAS No. 99 incentives, opportunity, and rationalization are grounded in empirical evidence. In that regard, the efforts of the profession to emphasize management override are warranted. 2. Evidence on the usefulness of checklists as a fraud detection tool is mixed. While there is some research that supports the use of checklists as a decision tool, there is more evidence that suggests the use of checklists is dysfunctional in that auditors fail to expand their thinking beyond the checklist. 3. Research supports a need by auditors to align management incentives to the types of risks that...

Words: 5487 - Pages: 22

Premium Essay

An Examination of the Fraudulent Factors Associated with Corporate Fraud

...economy. Audits, which were conducted to assess the validity and reliability of a company’s financial statements, were not detecting the material misstatements in the statements. As a result, both the US Government and the accounting profession needed to come up with a way to prevent these immense frauds from occurring in the future. As a response to these large frauds, in 2002, the US Government passed the Sarbanes – Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) issued Statement on Auditing Standards No. 99(SAS No. 99) to improve investor confidence and the auditing function’s ability to detect material frauds. The intent of this thesis was to look at the fraudulent factors associated with several recent corporate frauds and compare them to the standards set by SAS No. 99. Through the analysis conducted, this thesis looks at the relationships between pressures, opportunities, and rationalizations made during the act of fraud. Table of Contents ABSTRACT ii INTRODUCTION 1 Sarbanes – Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) 1 Statement of Auditing Standards Number 99 (SAS No. 99) 4 Parts of the Fraud Triangle 5 Types of Fraud 11 INSTANCES OF FRAUD 13 Enron Corporation 13 Adelphia Communications Corporation 17 AOL Time Warner, Inc. 20 Bristol-Myers Squibb Company 25 Global Crossing Limited 27 K-Mart 30 Tyco International, Ltd. 34 WorldCom 37 HealthSouth Corporation 41 CONCLUSION 45 Appendix: SOX Titles and Sections...

Words: 11749 - Pages: 47

Premium Essay

Waawa

...such as the government, household, and business sectors MICROECONOMICS Looks at specific economics units. At this level of analysis, the economist observes details of an economics unit, or very small segment of the economy ANALYTICAL TOOLS AND M ETHODOLOGY USED IN ECONOMICS rational self-interest means that given a certain condition, individuals try to minimize the expected cost for a benefit or maximize the expected benefit with a cost. Opportunity cost It is cost associated with opportunities that are foregone when a firms resources are not put to their best alternative is one of the most frequently used tools for modern economic analysis, deriving many important economic theories and models. It is also a powerful tool in analyzing individual decision-making process. Whoever you are, an individual, a company or a nation, you face opportunity cost when making decisions. A second key...

Words: 3610 - Pages: 15

Premium Essay

Data Science

...invited their friends and colleagues to join. But users weren’t seeking out connections with the people who were already on the site at the rate executives had expected. Something was apparently missing in the social experience. As one LinkedIn manager put it, “It was like arriving at a conference reception and realizing you don’t know anyone. So you just stand in the corner sipping your drink—and you probably leave early.” SPOTLIGHT ON BIG DATA Goldman, a PhD in physics from Stanford, was intrigued by the linking he did see going on and by the richness of the user profiles. It all made for messy data and unwieldy analysis, but as he began exploring people’s connections, he started to see possibilities. He began forming theories, testing hunches, and finding patterns that allowed him to predict whose networks a given profile would land in. He could imagine that new features capitalizing on the heuristics he was developing might provide value to users. But LinkedIn’s engineering team, caught up in the challenges of scaling up the site, seemed uninterested. Some colleagues were openly dismissive of Goldman’s ideas. Why would users need LinkedIn to figure out their networks for them? The site already had an address book importer that could pull in...

Words: 4101 - Pages: 17

Premium Essay

Exam Notes

...Concepts and Characteristics of Fraud a. Evaluation of the auditor’s fraud detection responsibilities b. Treadway Committee Report findings c. Who commits fraud and why? 2. The Auditor’s Responsibility for Detecting and Reporting upon Fraud (AU 316) a. Misstatements arising from fraudulent financial reporting – Fraud for the Entity b. Misstatements arising from misappropriation of assets – Fraud against the Entity c. The overall process: i. Identify client fraud risk areas ii. Consider client anti-fraud programs and controls iii. Respond to results of the fraud risk assessment d. Responding to misstatements identified in the audit i. Effects, if due to fraud, likely immaterial ii. Effects, if due to fraud, could be material e. Detection and reporting responsibilities within the client organization – how do we respond to fraud internally f. Responsibilities for reporting fraud to outsiders – is the same criteria for reporting fraud externally as we had to do with illegal acts. g. Audit documentation responsibilities h. Typical fraud warning signs and red flags (AU 316.85) – they are arranged by 3 elements that typically exist in some kind of combination of fraud. AU 316.85 “Examples of Fraud Risk Factors. Separately presented are examples relating to the two types of fraud relevant to the auditor’s consideration...

Words: 26468 - Pages: 106

Premium Essay

A Guide to Forensic Accounting Investigation

...A GUIDE TO FORENSIC ACCOUNTING INVESTIGATION THOMAS W. GOLDEN, STEVEN L. SKALAK, AND MONA M. CLAYTON JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. A GUIDE TO FORENSIC ACCOUNTING INVESTIGATION THOMAS W. GOLDEN, STEVEN L. SKALAK, AND MONA M. CLAYTON JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Copyright © 2006 by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. PricewaterhouseCoopers refers to the individual member firms of the worldwide PricewaterhouseCoopers organization. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this...

Words: 246885 - Pages: 988

Premium Essay

Master

...Chapter 1 Ethical Reasoning: Implications for Accounting Ethics Reflection PENN STATE CHILD ABUSE SCANDAL: A CULTURE OF INDIFFERENCE What motivates an otherwise ethical person to do the wrong thing when faced with an ethical dilemma? Why did Joe Paterno and administrators at Penn State University look the other way and fail to act on irrefutable evidence that former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky had raped and molested young boys, an offense for which Sandusky currently is serving a 30- to 60-year sentence? According to the independent report by Louis Freeh that investigated the sexual abuse, four of the most powerful people at Penn State, including president Graham Spanier, athletic director Timothy Curley, senior vice president Gary Schultz, and head football coach Joe Paterno, sheltered a child predator harming children for over a decade by concealing Sandusky’s activities from the board of trustees, the university community, and authorities. The Freeh report characterizes the inactions as lacking empathy for the victims by failing to inquire as to their safety and wellbeing. Not only that, but they exposed the first abused child to additional harm by alerting Sandusky, who was the only one who knew the child’s identity, of what assistant coach Mike McQueary saw in the shower on the night of February  9, 2001.1 McQueary testified at the June  2012 trial of Sandusky that when he was a graduate assistant, he walked into the locker room and heard sounds of slapping...

Words: 31231 - Pages: 125

Premium Essay

Scanning Applications

...U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation 2012 The Strategic Information and Operations Center at FBI Headquarters is the 24/7 command post that monitors FBI operations and law enforcement activities around the globe. An FBI agent examines a potentially contaminated letter during a white powder training exercise. 2012 The FBI Story I A Message from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III For the FBI and its partners, 2012 was a year that reminded us once again of the seriousness of the security threats facing our nation. During the year, extremists plotted to attack—unsuccessfully, thanks to the work of our Joint Terrorism Task Forces—the U.S. Capitol, the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and other landmarks on U.S. soil. Tragically, on the 11th anniversary of 9/11, a hateful attack in Benghazi took the lives of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. In the cyber realm, a rising tide of hackers took electronic aim at global cyber infrastructure, causing untold damages. High-dollar white-collar crimes of all kinds also continued to siphon significant sums from the pocketbooks of consumers. And in Newtown, Connecticut, 20 young children and six adults lost their lives in one of the worst mass shootings in American history, ending a year of violence that saw similar tragedies around the country. Working with its colleagues around the globe, the FBI is committed to taking a leadership role in protecting the nation. As you can see from...

Words: 67387 - Pages: 270

Premium Essay

Religion and Ethics in Our Modern Society

...Notes for the Course: Religion and Ethics in our Modern Society, 2012 By Dr H Ndlovu Definition and Nature of Christian Ethics Ethics is derived from the Greek word “ethos” that is also comes from another word “ethika.” Ethika means norms, conventions, values, customs the society. Thus ethics is a discipline that examines one’s moral standards or the moral of a society. These are absorbed from family, church and friends. Why Study Ethics There are nine reasons why human beings have to study ethics. 1. Human beings are capable of reasoning from cause to effect with the understanding that everything done has effect. 2. Human beings are capable of making choices after comparing the alternatives, that is, internal and external. People have two cells namely: a. Real – what we have now b. Ideal – what we are aiming at 3. Human beings are self – conscious. This means we can study ourselves by being a subject and be the object at the same time. 4. Human beings are finite or limited not knowing what will happen from the next moment or next door. Thus, we must have principles to apply when situations comes. 5. Human life is an active dynamic phenomenon – We do something as if we do nothing. 6. People also can be taught to be good (Isaiah 1 :18) 7. Human beings are capable of filing an obligation 8. Human beings are also capable of understanding what moral terms like freedom, dignity and so on affects other people. 9. Finally, human beings need to survive. Human civilization...

Words: 39235 - Pages: 157

Premium Essay

Canhan

...4 TH EDITION Managing and Using Information Systems A Strategic Approach KERI E. PEARLSON KP Partners CAROL S. SAUNDERS University of Central Florida JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. To Yale & Hana To Rusty, Russell &Kristin VICE PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER EXECUTIVE EDITOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANT MARKETING MANAGER DESIGN DIRECTOR SENIOR DESIGNER SENIOR PRODUCTION EDITOR SENIOR MEDIA EDITOR PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES This book is printed on acid-free paper. Don Fowley Beth Lang Golub Lyle Curry Carly DeCandia Harry Nolan Kevin Murphy Patricia McFadden Lauren Sapira Pine Tree Composition Copyright  2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, website www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, website www.wiley.com/go/permissions. To order books or for customer service please, call 1-800-CALL WILEY (225-5945)...

Words: 175164 - Pages: 701

Premium Essay

Business and Management

...4 TH EDITION Managing and Using Information Systems A Strategic Approach KERI E. PEARLSON KP Partners CAROL S. SAUNDERS University of Central Florida JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. To Yale & Hana To Rusty, Russell &Kristin VICE PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER EXECUTIVE EDITOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANT MARKETING MANAGER DESIGN DIRECTOR SENIOR DESIGNER SENIOR PRODUCTION EDITOR SENIOR MEDIA EDITOR PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES This book is printed on acid-free paper. Don Fowley Beth Lang Golub Lyle Curry Carly DeCandia Harry Nolan Kevin Murphy Patricia McFadden Lauren Sapira Pine Tree Composition Copyright  2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, website www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, website www.wiley.com/go/permissions. To order books or for customer service please, call 1-800-CALL WILEY (225-5945)...

Words: 175164 - Pages: 701

Premium Essay

Ethical Leadershio

...2.0 LITEREATURE REVIEW The purpose of this study was to examine leadership behaviours especially Ethical Leadership as it impacts the third sector organizations’ performance. This chapter is comprised of reviewed literature regarding leadership, ethical leadership and the third sector organisations. Specifically, this chapter will be broken down into (a) Leadership (b) leadership behaviours (c) ethical leadership in the Third Sector (d) Organisation Performance (e) the impact of ethical Leadership in the third sector’s performance. 2.1 LEADERSHIP Leadership is one of the world’s oldest preoccupation. The understanding of leadership has figured strongly in the quest for knowledge (Bass 1990). Purposeful stories have been told through the generations about leaders’ competencies, ambitions, and shortcomings; leaders’ rights and privileges; and the leaders’ duties and obligations. A review of relevant literature has uncovered many different definitions of leadership. Leadership remains one of the most relevant aspects of organizational context (Nwokocha 2011). For more than five decades ago, the term leadership has been a researchable topic. Mostly, the research work focuses on issues of quality of leadership, ability of a leader, or leadership effectiveness, or leadership styles (Daft 2008, Bass 1990, Erez et al 2001 & Yukl 2006) Stogdill (1974, p. 259) stated that “ there are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define...

Words: 10651 - Pages: 43

Premium Essay

Mis Book

...4 TH EDITION Managing and Using Information Systems A Strategic Approach KERI E. PEARLSON KP Partners CAROL S. SAUNDERS University of Central Florida JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. To Yale & Hana To Rusty, Russell &Kristin VICE PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER EXECUTIVE EDITOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANT MARKETING MANAGER DESIGN DIRECTOR SENIOR DESIGNER SENIOR PRODUCTION EDITOR SENIOR MEDIA EDITOR PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES Don Fowley Beth Lang Golub Lyle Curry Carly DeCandia Harry Nolan Kevin Murphy Patricia McFadden Lauren Sapira Pine Tree Composition This book is printed on acid-free paper. Copyright  2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, website www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, website www.wiley.com/go/permissions. To order books or for customer service please...

Words: 175167 - Pages: 701