Looking for a 10 to 15 minute recording of a speech. The PowerPoint and Paper are attached, but looking for this by Wednesday night if possible. Has to be an audio file, not a video file.

ACCOUNTING FRAUD JUSTIN CHRISTIANSEN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Provides information on the proceedings by the SEC since the inception of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Even with the implementation of SOX in 2002, accounting and corporate fraud has increased (63 new cases for 2016 as of March 29th). New accounting standards and principles need to be brought in as current standards are not working to stop fraud. Accountants and auditors need ethics training more than ever due to the increase in fraud. INTRODUCTION With the passing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the general public was led to believe that this would deter corporate fraud. However, that is not the case. Accounting scandals are still happening and are happening at a rate of over one new case a day since the inception of the SOX Act. Accounting and Corporate fraud is running rampant and needs to be stopped. ISSUES TO ADDRESS 1. Will reforming the current standards and principles be enough to stop fraud from happening? 2. The accounting profession should seek ethics training and how often should they? 3. What is the best way to give accountants and auditors ethical material? Why are accountants and auditors more likely to help in fraudulent activities than other departments? ACCOUNTING FRAUD SOX Act was implemented in 2002 by Congress. Since the beginning of 2002 to March 29th of 2016, 5,567 litigation complaints have been filed on the SEC website. 423 new cases a year which means 1.16 cases per day. Range from $25k to multi million dollar fraudulent activities. Accountants, auditors, and executives are named in most cases. According to the FBI, fraud is continuing to raise and usually involve multiple agencies. ACCOUNTING FRAUD Effect of Accounting Fraud on the Economy Prior to 2002, 50% of household owned stock as opposed to 19% in 1962. 21% of American invest in mutual funds in 2002 as opposed to just 5% in 1990. Mutual fund shares are 44% of 401k assets in 2001 compared to just 9% in 1990. When companies commit fraud and then go bankrupt like Enron, Arthur Andersen, and WorldCom, employees are left with noing. ACCOUNTING FRAUD Public trust is not in the accounting profession. Accountants, auditors, and executives are in the SEC litigation complaints. Accountants know of the schemes and generally partake in the scheme. Auditors hide wrongdoings much like Arthur Andersen did with Enron. Accountants have the ability to stop fraud before it spirals out of control, but accountants do not raise the issue. REFORMING CURRENT STANDARDS AND PRINCIPLES FASB and IASB Working on the convergence project to align IFRS with U.S. GAAP. Could be the reform needed in order to help curb and stop accounting fraud. IFRS is used everywhere else in the world except the U.S. where most, if not all, of the accounting fraud takes place. IFRS could deter fraud with it's rules, standards, and principles aligned to help the accounting profession. ETHICS Accountants have the ability to stop fraud before it happens. Accountants, auditors, and executives are named in litigation complaints with the SEC. Accountants know of the scheme ahead of time but don't stop it. Afraid to lose their job and livelihood. AICPA giving rhetoric to members on how to stop fraud. Ethics need to be the foundation of a company, not an afterthought. Accountants perform a vital role in society and have a responsibility to maintain the public's trust (AICPA). Mandatory ethics training need to be given to all accountants and auditors to curb fraud. Seminar or conference to give solutions and how-to's. WHISTLEBLOWER POLICY AICPA gives information out to its members to combat fraud. Gives accountants and auditors the ability to fight fraud instead of being a part of it. Tells members how they can fight it including hotlines to call in order to blow the whistle on any scandals. If Arthur Andersen would have had this in their consulting and auditing businesses, it would have stopped the Enron scandal and thousands of people would still have careers and pensions. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. 1. Need new accounting standards and principles as the current rules are not working to stop fraudulent activities. 2. 2. Accountants need to be trained on ethics as they are the first line of defense against corporate schemes. Shows accountants what needs to be done if a scandal presents itself. 3. 3. Whistleblower policy on accountants who stop fraud and need to be rewarded, not threatened to lose their jobs. CONCLUSIONS 1. 1. Better accounting standards and principles. U.S. GAAP is out of date and not reliable. 2. 2. Client and auditor relationship needs to be modified. 3. 3. Accounting fraud still happening and a rate of over one new case each and every single day. 4. 4. Accounting profession is still to blame for fraudulent activities as they are the first to spot a scheme. WORKS CITED ACCT601 - ACCOUNTING CAPSTONE ACCOUNTING FRAUD Accounting Fraud: Is It Still an Issue? Keller Graduate School of Management Professor Richard Adamich Justin Christiansen 17/2016 This report gives the reader information on accounting fraud. It also provides the reader with information on the proceedings by the SEC since the inception of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. ACCT601 - ACCOUNTING CAPSTONE ACCOUNTING FRAUD Table of Contents I. Executive Summary..................................................................................................................................1 II. Introduction..............................................................................................................................................3 III. Review of Literature.................................................................................................................................4 IV. Analysis.....................................................................................................................................................6 V. Recommendations.................................................................................................................................13 VI. Summary and Conclusions.....................................................................................................................14 VII. References..............................................................................................................................................19 ACCT601 - ACCOUNTING CAPSTONE ACCOUNTING FRAUD I. Executive Summary Accounting Fraud This research paper is to discuss why there still continues to be accounting fraud happening after the inception of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and what the Securities Exchange Commission is doing about it. When discussing what needs to be done in order to curb this type of behavior, it all points to what the SEC should do in order to punish offenders. Is the punishment not severe enough for individuals who are performing these acts of deception? Does the SEC not have enough authority to give harsher punishments? What does the SEC need to do in order to ensure that the accounting principles and ethics are being followed? The information that was gathered for this report comes from the SEC, AICPA, and some sources which were obtained from the university library using key words and phrases like Corporate Fraud, Ethics for Accounting Professionals, Corporate Scandals, fraud, and ethics violations. What was found was that although the SOX Act started in 2002, the reality of the situation is that the number of corporate scandals has increased. One would think that with the U.S. Congress being at the foreground for reform of corporations would have the same information that I have for this research paper. I found it hard to believe, especially after all of the schooling, instructing, and previous research, that the number of corporate scandals has actually increased. I was completely flabbergasted by the research and immediately wanted to know what the SEC and other agencies were going to do to curb and stop this behavior. Research has shown that at the end of the first quarter of 2013, the SEC filed 85 legal proceedings. That is essentially thirty cases a month or one a day! How are these government agencies not angered over these statistics? And what gets me the most is the fact that these Page 1 of 21 ACCT601 - ACCOUNTING CAPSTONE ACCOUNTING FRAUD proceedings from the SEC are against the board of directors, accountants, auditors, and others. Isn't this what SOX was supposed to stop? In today's society, the public is uncertain about using the stock market to grow their retirement savings. The reason why investors don't want to invest in the stock market is due to corporate scandals and fraud and are worried that their retirement savings will be taken to the cleaners much like Enron, WorldCom, and other various companies that no longer exist because of corporate fraud. Research shows that the public's trust can be reclaimed if there is some assurance from the SEC and other governing bodies that they can take care of and eliminate accounting scandals. Research shows that with how vital accountants are to their organizations, accountants would have knowledge of any corporate schemes and the ability to end it and lower the number of corporate scandals. However, many accountants go along with the scandal due to several reasons. First, is pressure from upper management or managers which leads to concealing the scandal. Second, the accountant could feel that due to their loyalty to the company or management that they don't want to go against either. And lastly, greed plays a part in which they go along with the scandal and profit from it. From the websites that have helped in the research phase of the paper, the AICPA and others accounting bodies have Code of Professional ethics for their memberships. These codes include how accountants should react when they find out or are presented with accounting scandals. For this topic, it would be recommended that the government agencies, such as the SEC, take a more forceful and authoritative approach to enforce policies, develop more suitable Page 2 of 21 ACCT601 - ACCOUNTING CAPSTONE ACCOUNTING FRAUD auditing standards to be followed, and to implement these changes in a way that would make the corporations think twice before deciding to do something like this. II. Fraud Introduction Accounting fraud in the U.S. has been as commonplace as everyday normal activities like eating breakfast or dinner. These scandals have stunned the American public and caused such a distrust in the accounting profession as a whole that it is going to take years of enforcing the laws to get the confidence back it once had. Because of how commonplace scandals are Americans are baffled by how that even after legislation has been enacted, that there continues to be scandals. As of March 29, 2016, the SEC has published sixty-three cases against culprits who commit criminal acts. These culprits include the board of directors of companies, accountants, and auditors. In recent years, the SEC has made numerous efforts to deter accounting fraud with the help of the PCAOB, ASB, and FASB. These accounting boards were originally created to protect investors but due to the increasing number of accounting frauds, the American people want the accounting standards and principles created to deter deceitful practices in favor of transparency and honesty. With that being said, FASB is working with IASB to help facilitate the adoption of the International Financial Reporting standards, or IFRS. It is believed that with the adoption of IFRS and moving away from U.S. GAAP, the accounting profession will be more in line with the rest of the world. Even with U.S. GAAP or the adoption of IFRS in the U.S., there is still the issue of unethical people in the corporate setting or accounting profession. Because of these unethical people, the Page 3 of 21 ACCT601 - ACCOUNTING CAPSTONE ACCOUNTING FRAUD number of accounting standards will continue to rise until something is done about them as well. One thing that the AICPA has done was issue a Code of Professional Conduct to its members to assist these professionals with situations that might come up and how to handle these situations. It could be something such as being pressured to do something unethical or just facing an unethical dilemma at work. Organizations such as the AICPA are trying to inform their members with rhetoric on how to handle situations, but the vast majority of accountants may not have access to that and with that being said, it should something that the SEC takes control of and disseminates it among the accountants and auditors. III. Review of Literature This research paper is determined to examine and hopefully solve two problems that stem from accounting fraud and corporate scandals. The first problem is that with the inception of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, scandals are still common place to what was going on prior to 2002 and in some cases, worse than before. Scandals have stunned America, sent blows through the stock markets and has at times caused the American dollar to drop in value making other currencies stronger. The other problem that needs to be addressed and solved for is the need for accounting principles and standards to be updated. By updating the standards and principles that are the foundation of the accounting profession, these will in turn protect the interests of who this reform is needed for: creditors, investors, company employees, and anyone else who would have a hand in the pot with companies. By having updated standards and principles, investors should not have to worry about what corporations are doing with their money and public trust and positive perception of the accounting profession can be considered noble instead of being the forefront for all of the corporate scandals and accounting frauds. Page 4 of 21 ACCT601 - ACCOUNTING CAPSTONE ACCOUNTING FRAUD After some research and trying to find literature on scandals after the SOX Act, looking it up was easier than originally thought with the SEC litigation section on their website. It actually lists who the SEC is going after and by clicking into individual cases, one can see how much the dollar range of the fraud actually is. By observing this website, it shows that although the U.S. Congress helped pass the SOX Act, the number of corporate scandals are still growing and doesn't seem to be slowly down at all. The website currently shows that through March 29 th of 2016, that there were 63 cases opened this year alone (SEC, 2016). These dollar ranges for these cases are as little as $25,000 to multi-million dollar. In the article \"The Role of Government in Corporate Governance\