Question
Ali Jamison is the controller at Williams Supply Company, a publicly traded distributor of automotive supplies. It is the end of the third quarter, and
Ali Jamison is the controller at Williams Supply Company, a publicly traded distributor of automotive supplies. It is the end of the third quarter, and Ali is working under a deadline to get the quarterly financial statements prepared before the board of directors meeting at 2 p.m. The board of directors approves the quarterly financial statements before they are sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Unfortunately, Ali has a problem. The debit and credit columns of the general ledger trial balance do not balance. She is certain that this is a simple mistake that someone made when recording a journal entry, but she just doesnt have time to look for the mistake. To meet the deadline, Ali decides to force the trial balance to balance by adding the $85,000 that she is out of balance to the Inventory account. Because inventory is the companys largest asset, Ali justified her actions by thinking that this wouldnt make a difference to anyone looking at the financial statements. She wished she had more time to look for the mistake, but the clock is ticking away. Is there any evidence of unethical behavior in this case?
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