Fraud is everywhere and cryptocurrency is an exciting, and yet scary, world to play in. Here is an interesting article about how the head of Bitcoin's Escrow Service may face serious jail time if found guilty of a $7M fraud from William Foxley of Coindesk.com:
Read MoreTags: Internal Controls, Vibato Anti-Fraud News, Internet Crime, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency
A great article was published today showing highlights of the IC3's 2016 Internet Crime Report. The report, published at www.fbi.gov, included some stastistics and this great visual depicting the victims of internet crime by age group:
Read MoreTags: Internet Crime, Ransomware, IT Controls, Tech Support Crime, Tech Support Fraud
A change to the Compensation - Stock Compensation (Topic 718 - formerly known as FAS 123R) was instituted this month and will be applicable to "any entity that changes the terms or conditions of a share-based payment award." Those companies affected by this change should review their overall procedures and internal controls to ensure they are updated to include these new requirements. Be sure to update your testing procedures too so this new requirement isn't missed during controls testing.
Read MoreTags: Topic 718, Stock Compensation, Black-Scholes, FASB Updates, FASB, Internal Control Changes, FAS 123R
It pays for an Auditor to know high-end brands because it is EXTREMELY difficult for people to hide their new-found wealth and typically the first way they show it is through their cars, jewelry, watches, bags, etc. It is human nature to brag and that starts with how you look, the brands you wear, and the car you drive. Case in point - we were once hired to investigate a company that couldn't figure out how they were "leaking so much money” considering they had only 7 employees. So, the first thing I asked for was a list of everyone's salaries and I inquired about each person’s background. Here is what I found:
Read MoreTags: fraud prevention, White Collar Fraud, fraud, Vibato Anti-Fraud News, How to prevent Fraud
General Cable Corporate was fined more than $75M for "...not having effective programs & internal controls necessary to proactively address corruption risks and accounting errors." Terrible considering it would have cost them <$50K to become compliant using the Vibato program and they would have also been able to experience the benefits of compliance such as more efficient procedures, shorter close duration, balanced workloads, etc...The CEO & CFO also had to return a total of $5.8M in combined compensation - that they were entitled to - but that they forfeited simply because they failed to follow the rules and comply with the Sarbanes Oxley laws. Expensive lesson...
Read MoreTags: SOX, Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC, SEC fines
