A former chairman, CFO, and controller of Donnkenny, Inc., an apparel company that makes sportswear for Pierre Cardin and Victoria Jones, pleaded guilty to financial statement fraud. These managers used false journal entries to record fictitious sales, hid inventory in public warehouses so that it could be recorded as “sold,” and required sales orders to be backdated so that the sale could be moved to an earlier period. The combined effect of these actions caused $25 million out of $40 million in quarterly sales to be phony.
a. Why might control procedures listed in this chapter be insufficient in stopping this type of fraud?
b. How could this type of fraud be stopped?
Answer:
a. The most difficult frauds to detect are those that involve the senior managers of a company who are in a conspiracy to commit the fraud. The senior managers have the power to access many parts of the accounting system, while the normal separation of duties is subverted by involving many people in the fraud. In addition, the authorization control is subverted because most of the authorization power resides in senior management.
b. Overall, this type of fraud can be stopped if there is a strong oversight of senior management, such as an audit committee of the board of directors. Individual whistle-blowers in the company can make their concerns known to the independent or internal auditors who, in turn, can inform the audit committee. The audit committee should be independent of management and have the power to monitor the actions of management.