This was good, for although I do not want to become a fraud investigator,
I now have a better understanding behind what goes on during an
investigation. a I feel the fraud triangle was probably where I came to this
realization as it helps in assessing what is lacking in the controls. a
Usually, I approach an audit thinking that something was misrepresented
due to human error but I have become a bit more suspicious in my work. a
Hopefully I do not find an administrator who is mismanaging retiree
funds, but I feel more aware none the less.
The concepts that we have studied in the course will be very useful in my
career, and currently they already are. In my department at my job, we
have our external auditors that conduct an audit exam every year. This is
mainly to prepare us for our FDIC exam. They ask us specific questions
to understand our job functions, and if there are new processes that have
been implemented, they want to know. They are essentially gathering
evidence to determine our final grade for the exam. It was also interesting
to learn about the different theories of crime causation and what drives a
criminal to commit a crime, better known as the fraud theory. I could use
the red flags talked about in the text to analyze if I believe a co-worker, or
even a manager, is committing fraudulent acts. Lastly, I must abide by the
professional responsibilities of the accounting profession, which are “to
employ the degree of knowledge, skill, and judgment ordinarily
possessed by members of the profession, to follow the highest standards
of conduct prescribed by each of the organizations to which the
professional (or firm) belongs, and to adhere to the provisions of any
regulatory or licensing authority” (Rufus, Miller, & Hahn, 2014, p. 292).
This has been an interesting class to take. I have always loved mysteries
and trying to solve them. This class was about finding out which
companies have committed fraud, how they committed the fraud, and
why. I want to go into auditing which the skills I learned in this class will
prepare me for. Skills such as examining and gathering data will be
relevant for ensuring companies are acting in compliance and if not, how
the financials have been affected. We also had an activity where we
learned about the factors to consider when deciding to accept or reject an
assignment. This skill will also be useful as an auditor because in some
cases you would need to decide whether to accept or reject a new client
and looking at factors such as why they need a new auditor or they
consistently need a new auditor every couple years can signal that this
would be a risky engagement or should be rejected.
This has been one of my most interesting classes. I love the hunt of
looking up companies and seeing what fraud they committed, why they
committed it, and what eventually happened to the company. I have loved
looking up Enron and seeing how greedy the upper management team
was and how that eventually caused the company to have to file for
bankruptcy and to close down. The concepts and/or skills learned in this
class that I find most interesting and will be most useful to my
professional or personal life is the fraud triangle that was developed by
Dr. Donald Cressey. a The fraud triangle is made of 3 categories:
opportunity, rationalization, and financial pressures, and it explains why
so many people commit fraud. This was very interesting to me because
now after further researching, I totally agree with the findings. Having
knowledge of this will allow me to make sure that I don't think like this and
allows me to help my friends and family if I feel like they might be leaning
towards making up and excuse to do something illegal.
References
Rufus, R., Miller, L., & Hahn, W. (2014, p. 292). Forensic Accounting.
Pearson Education.
