John Markov runs a family-owned department store in St. Louis. The store consists of nine different departments, each with its own department manager. Store hours are Monday through Saturday from 10:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M., and from noon until 5:00 P.M. on Sunday. Each department has its own cash register, and two salespersons are assigned to each register. To prevent any confusion, each salesperson must enter his or her own secret code with each transaction. At the end of each day, the sales manager in each department tallies the department’s register, collects the money (cash and checks) from the register, and prepares a transmittal slip for the general manager to review and sign. The general manager then double-checks the Cash count before signing the transmittal slips. After collecting all cash receipts from all departments, the general manager prepares a daily cash sales report and sends it to the store’s finance manager. The finance manager again counts the money and signs three copies of the daily cash sales report. She keeps one copy for herself, a second copy goes to the store accountant, and the last copy goes to the store manager. The finance manager then puts all of the cash into the company safe, where it stays until the next morning when it is picked up by an armored car service. The store accountant reconciles copies of cash sales reports with bank deposit slips and with credits on the monthly bank statement. John has a close relationship with the bank, so he is always called first when there is any kind of issue or problem. He just received a call from one of the bank’s customer service representatives who suggested that he look into some customer checks that had recently bounced. The bank representative said that some of the payer names on the checks had come up in bad checks written to a number of other local businesses. “You have an insider working against you,” said the bank employee. “This is happening all over town, and I heard a police investigator say that there’s always an insider involved.”
a. What possible check fraud schemes might the company be a victim of?
b. Given the store’s procedures for processing cash receipts, which persons in the store are in a position to participate in a check fraud scheme?