1. What are some of the fraud opportunities within Green Grass?
2. What symptoms of fraud exist, and what symptoms should the owner look for if he believes fraud may be occurring?
3. What steps should be taken to make sure fraud does not occur, and what are the costs associated with these steps?
Green Grass is a small, family-operated company whose core service is in horticultural care and lawn care for customers in the local city. The owner of the company is the father of the family. He has used the company to cover the costs of his children’s college education. At the same time, he has been able to give his children some work experience and an opportunity to earn their own money to pay for school. The company has grown steadily over the last few years, and the owner has hired many employees outside of the family to be able to keep up with the demand of the increasing number of customers. The company is run from a small office building, and there is only one employee running the operations in the company office. The father had usually been in charge of this aspect of the company, but now leaves the responsibility to his trusted friend, who has experience in accounting and information systems. This employee is in charge of scheduling the routes of all the employees and is responsible for payments, receipts, and balancing the books.