Lecture 11:
Fraud Auditing
By
Professor Helen Brown
This lecture focuses on fraud. Fraud is defined (in this lecture) as any intentional act or omission designed to deceive others, resulting in the victim suffering a loss and/or the perpetrator achieving a gain. After going over possible incentives
for partaking in fraud, the Professor goes over characteristics of fraudsters. Most workplace fraudsters are first-time offenders. Also, the size of the loss incurred by the firm is usually directly related to the position of the perpetrator - for example, a low ranking, standard employee leads to a smaller loss than
if somebody like a
CEO committed fraud, which would most likely lead to a very big loss.
Many statistics regarding fraud are shown and discussed. For example, 67% of perpetrators are male while the remaining 33% are female. The median loss caused by males is approximately $232,
000 while the median loss caused by female is approximately $
100,000. The median age seems to range between 36 and 45 (middle age).
Following the discussion of statistics regarding fraud, the Professor moves on to discuss the concept of fraud in greater detail. There are three general categories of fraud.
Management fraud, for example, can include fraudulent financial reporting, which is essentially high ranking employees (managers) take unethical actions (i.e. alter financial statements) to meet earnings objectives.
Misappropriation of assets involves theft of an entity's assets.
Corruption is defined as any scheme in which an individual uses his or her influence in a business transaction to obtain an unauthorized benefit contrary to that person's duty to his or her employer. Out of the three, asset misappropriation is by far the "most popular." However, it also causes the least median loss compared to corruption ($
250,000) and financial statement fraud ($4.1M). A chart is also shown detailing the different types of fraud.
Following a lengthy class exercise, items that could entice an individual to partake in fraud are further discussed. Extrinsic motives include unrealistic performance and profit expectations, excessive financial pressures, complexity of industry, and instability of financial climate.
Intrinsic motives include status gaining mentality, personal failures and / or addictions, perceived lack of appreciation / value, and cognitive dissonance.
Personal deviance includes addictions, vices, and negative habits as well as unusual interaction and communication style. Non-conforming aesthetics and low morale and poor attitude are also listed as personal deviants.
Professional deviants include unusual work schedule, misuse of company perquisites, inadequate productivity, and unreliability.
Regarding how to assess the risk of fraud, auditing standards emphasize consideration of a client's susceptibility to fraud regardless of the auditor's beliefs about the likelihood of fraud and management's honesty and integrity.
SAS 1 states that when exercising professional skepticism, an auditor neither assumes that management is dishonest nor assumes unquestioned honesty (in other words, to be as close to neutral as possible).
SAS 99 provides guidance to auditors in assessing the risk of fraud.
Next, the Professor goes over sources of information gathered to assess fraud risks.
Communication among the audit team, inquiries of management, risk factors, and analytical procedures are all sources through which information can be gathered to assess the risk of fraud. Fraud assessments must be documented and reported (including the discussion, procedures, specific risks, reasons, other conditions, results, and the nature of the communications with management and audit committee).
Responding to the risk of fraud is also covered. If fraud is discovered, the overall conduct of the audit must be changed to respond to identified fraud risks (such as assigning more experienced personnel to the audit or even a fraud specialist).
Audit procedures must be designed and performed to address risks that have already been identified (in other words, tailor your system so that any fraud that has already occurred cannot happen again). The appropriate audit procedures necessary to address specific fraud risks depends on the account being audited and the type of fraud risk identified.
Fraud: What, why and Who? 4:20
Characteristics of Fraudsters 5:20
Gender of Perpetrator 6:53
Age of Perpetrator 10:43
Employment Tenure 12:35
Position of the Perpetrator 13:40
Fraud 14:40
Types of Fraud 17:26
Burden of Proof 20:32
Class Exercise to recognize fraud
(easy to do along with the class) 20:35 - 1:14:20
Motive 1:14:20
Autonomy 1:14:58
Deviance 1:15:56
The fraud triangle 1:16:49
Assessing the
Risk of Fraud 1:19:
26
SAS 99 - 1:20:30
Sources of
Information Gathered to asses fraud risks 1:21:43
Documenting Fraud Assessment 1:22:18
Responding to the Risk of Fraud 1:22:49
Specific Fraud Risk Areas 1:23:53
Trust but Verify 1:24:32
- published: 02 May 2013
- views: 3793