Grand Theft Auto ranks among the best-selling video games of all time as well as one of the most controversial.1 By the time Grand Theft Auto V was released in 2013, over 125 million copies of the video game had been sold worldwide since the original version of the game was introduced in 1997. Wikipedia provides the following general description of the game.Game play focuses on an open world where the player can choose missions to progress an overall story, as well as engaging in side activities, all consisting of actionadventure, driving, occasional role-playing, stealth, and racing elements. The subject of the game is usually a comedic satire of American culture, but the series has gained controversy for its adult nature and violent themes.Through the years, prominent public officials, major media outlets, and public service organizations have condemned Grand Theft Auto. In 2005, U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to assign a rating of “Adults Only” to the game because of its “pornographic and violent content,” which includes one setting that “encourages them [game players] to have sex with prostitutes and then murder them.”2 At approximately the same time, U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman denounced the game as “gruesome,and grotesque.”3 Three years later, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City bluntly noted that the game “Teaches children to kill.”⁴In fact, law enforcement authorities have linked the commission of serious crimes to Grand Theft Auto. In 2003, a teenager killed three police officers in Alabama in a set of circumstances similar to a scene in the game. The teenager, who played the game “day and night” and had no previous criminal record, calmly told his captors that, “Life is like a video game. Everybody’s got to die sometime.”⁵In referring to that case, a CNN commentator branded Grand Theft Auto a “cop killing simulator.”6 Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) have criticized the game for encouraging drunk driving. “Drunk driving is not a game, and it is not a joke.”7 A spokesperson for Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., the producer of the game, responded by maintaining that MADD’s criticism was unfair since the given version of Grand Theft Aut involved only one drunk driving scene. “For the same reason that you can’t judge an entire film or television program by a single scene, you can’t judge Grand Theft Auto IV by a small aspect of the game.”⁸

Take-Two’s executives have been the target of most of the emotionally charged criticism  of Grand Theft Auto. A Wall Street analyst who tracked Take-Two’s stock for years  suggested that, “You’d be hard-pressed to find a worse set of guys.”9 Despite repeated  challenges to the suitability of Grand Theft Auto filed with the FTC by various parties,  the federal agency that eventually posed the most significant challenge for the company’s  management team was the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC  sanctioned several of Take-Two’s top executives for issuing a series of financial statements  that contained fraudulent misrepresentations. Those sanctions resulted in Take-Two restating its financial statements three separate times between 2001 and 2004.

Questions1. Analyze Take-Two’s 1998-2000 financial data included in Exhibit 1. Compute the following financial ratios for each of those years: age of accounts receivable, age of inventory, gross profit percentage, profit margin percentage, return on assets, return on equity, current ratio, debt-to-equity ratio, and the quality-of-earnings ratio. What major “red flags,” if any, were present in Take-Two’s financial statements given these ratios? Explain. 

2. Identify the primary audit objectives that auditors hope to accomplish by confirming a client’s year-end accounts receivable. Explain the difference between “positive” and “negative” confirmation requests and discuss the quality of audit evidence yielded by each.3. Identify audit tests that may be used as alternative audit procedures when a response is not received for a positive confirmation request. Compare and contrast the quality of audit evidence yielded by these procedures with that produced by audit confirmation procedures.4. In your opinion, did the apparent mistakes made by the PwC auditors in auditing Take-Two’s receivables and reserve for sales returns involve “negligence” on their part? Would you characterize the mistakes or errors as “reckless” or “fraudulent”? Justify your answers.5. Is it appropriate for audit firms to sharply discount their professional fees for developmental stage companies? Why or why not? What problems, if any, may this practice pose for audit firms?6. Do you believe that the relationship between Robert Fish and Ryan Brant was inappropriate? Explain.7. Should audit firms accept “ethically challenged” companies and organizations as audit clients? Defend your answer.

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1999 $305,932 90,810 27,381 16,332 107,799 41,300 187,970 231,712 Current Liabilities 146,531 Total Liabilities 146,609 Net Operating Cash Flows (16,748) Net Investing Cash Flows (21,540) Net Financing Cash Flows 46,780 Note: The following financial statement amounts for 1997 were included in Take-Two's 1999 Form 10-K. Sales $97,341 Gross Profit 15,862 Operating Income Net Income Accounts Receivable Inventories Sales Gross Profit Operating Income Net Income Accounts Receivable Inventories Total Current Assets Total Assets 2000 Total Assets Total Stockholders' Equity Net Operating Cash Flows Net Investing Cash Flows Net Financing Cash Flows $387,006 139,210 45,061 24,963 134,877 44,922 214,908 351,641 152,023 164,639 (55,259) (12,906) 71,564 (895) (2,904) 36,369 20,784 56,395 1998 $194,052 46,496 10,690 11,935 (14,460) (2,583) 18,809 7,181 49,139 26,093 95,302 109,385 73,505 73,820 (8,022) (727) 9,017 Source: Form 10-Ks filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.