Business Commons^™

Cryptocurrency Fraud: A Look Into The Frontier Of Fraud, Stafford C. Baum

Honors College Theses

This research project was conducted to look into what sort of frauds can be committed to steal unsuspecting investors’ cryptocurrencies. The inspiration for this research came in the form of the fact that millions of dollars are lost to cryptocurrency fraud each day, and many of these frauds are successful due to the public’s naivete towards the dangers of investing in cryptocurrencies. After researching many different cryptocurrency fraud cases, the frauds could be categorized into four major categories. These categories include Ponzi schemes, fake initial coin offering schemes, pump and dump schemes as well as cryptocurrency theft.

Equifax: Anatomy Of A Security Breach, Ashton Glenn

Honors College Theses

The infamous 2017 Equifax breach not only compromised millions of citizens’ data, but the breach also left Equifax vulnerable to lawsuits that claim the company acted negligently. This thesis analyzes the events and facts behind the incident to determine the probable outcome of the main case against Equifax. A claim of a breach can come from either Equifax’s data protection or breach response. This thesis concludes the results of the case depends on the final court to determine if Equifax acted negligently with its data protection. If the case ends in the Eleventh District Court of Appeals, the court will …

Is Upcoding Anesthesia Time The Tip Of The Iceberg In Insurance Fraud?, Alberto Coustasse, Mike Frame, Avinandan Mukherjee

Management Faculty Research

The question of whether there is anomalous billing in anesthesia care is beginning to be asked by operating room managers, health care administrators, policy makers, and regulators. This question may arise when an anesthesia case seems to take more time to complete than it should. Audits, when conducted, have found that an unusual number of claims end with the digits 0 or 5 as if large numbers of cases start or end on the 5-minute mark. Such a finding serves as a red flag for that practice to undergo an audit. Questions may also be raised because the percentage of …

Investigating Information Security Policy Characteristics: Do Quality, Enforcement And Compliance Reduce Organizational Fraud?, Dennis T. Brown

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Organizational fraud, a deceitful practice or willful device resorted to with intent to deprive another of his right, or in some manner to do harm or injury, is a growing global concern. While cyberattacks from the outside are more expected, the internal security threat from trusted insiders is responsible for significantly more information compromise than external threats. Information systems make life easier but are increasingly used by employees to perpetrate fraudulent activities. For example, a trusted insider employee with access to sensitive customer databases could misappropriate information and sell it to a competitor for personal gain. These type losses are …

An Analysis Of Fraud Prevention And Detection In Not-For-Profit Organizations In The State Of South Carolina, Mary Gibson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study analyzed fraud detection and prevention techniques and analyzed if there was a relationship between the techniques and the detection of fraud. The combined techniques were fraud risk assessment, fraud risk register, code of conduct, fraud assessment training, whistle-blower policy, fraud control plan, fraud control policy, and internal control review. Nonprofits are vulnerable to fraud and costly for the organizations that rely heavily on donations to provide needed services or goods to a community. Through analyzing 109 nonprofits surveyed in South Carolina, the researcher found 59 reported fraud occurrences and 86 percent were using fraud detection and prevention techniques. …

Domestic Asset Tracing And Recovery Of Hidden Assets And The Spoils Of Financial Crime, Nathan Wadlinger, Carl Pacini, Nicole Stowell, William Hopwood, Debra Sinclair

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Beneficial Ownership: Tracking The True Owners Of Business Accounts, Angela Lintag-Ihde

Economic Crime Forensics Capstones

Bank accounts are a popular place to hide and move illegal funds. Many banks offer private banking or wealth management services, to customers with more than $1,000,000. That provides premier banking services as well as a confidential, safe, and legal haven. With these services is a heightened money laundering risk. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) of Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) Examination Manual specifically states that privacy and confidentiality are important elements of private banking relationships. “Private Banking and Wealth Management services are vulnerable to money laundering schemes that include: private bankers as client advocates; powerful clients including …

A Close Look At Audit Standards And Best Practices How To Validate The Existence Of An Asset, Luis Lebron

Economic Crime Forensics Capstones

A comparative analysis will be conducted seeking to identify how to obtain sufficient evidence to determine the existence of an asset within an organization during an independent audit. The external auditor is often regarded as the “gatekeeper” of the financial markets which has a fiduciary duty to its clients. (Choy, Fields, & King, 2008) Accounting firms are required by operation of law to act in an ethical manner and have a social responsibility to protect the interest of the public. However, there exists an ongoing issue in the performance of audits by larger firms. In a recent study conducted by …

Considerations Of Private Companies In Regard To External Auditing Including The Detection And Prevention Of Fraud, Alexandra Sprague

Senior Theses

Fraudulent activities occur in all types of companies. Recently, external auditors have become increasingly important in detecting and preventing these frauds. With their independence, auditors can provide external comfort with their opinion as to the fairness of their client’s financial statements. The goal of this thesis is to express the importance of fraud prevention in private companies, especially smaller private companies, and illustrate how external audits can have an impact in fraud prevention. After conducting interviews with private companies, many reasons were found as to why private companies either conduct or do not conduct an external audit. This research bridges …

Ponzi Schemes And The Awareness Of South Carolina Students To Financial Fraud, John Michael Williams, Sara Strauch, Drew Duncan

Senior Theses

Ponzi schemes have continued to grow since the 1920s when Charles Ponzi conducted the first successful Ponzi scheme. Since then, technology has advanced which can help fraudulent investors obtain money easier, but legislation has also improved in order to try to find these investors and stop them before they take large amounts of money from innocent individuals. Since Ponzi schemes have been around for almost 100 years now, there is a lot of research available to explain to investors what Ponzi schemes are and how to spot one before you invest in it. However, even though all of this research …

Fraud And The Evolution Of Forensic Accounting Education, Abel Pors

Senior Honors Theses

Forensic accounting, the use of accounting practices in court, developed as a field separate from traditional accounting or auditing throughout the 1900’s. As fraud changed the landscape of auditing practice, forensic accounting slowly began to take shape as the accountant’s answer to fraud. After a series of major frauds at the beginning of the 21st century, forensic accounting became one of the most demanded fields of accounting. The profession, though, was still relatively in its infancy: forensic accountants were predominantly untrained aside from firsthand experience. Since the early 2000’s, schools have begun rapidly implementing forensic accounting programs to meet the …

The Association Between Audit Fees And Accounting Restatement Resulting From Accounting Fraud And Clerical Errors, Daniel Gyung Paik, Taewoo Kim, Kip Krumwiede, Brandon B. Lee

Accounting Faculty Publications

Restatements of financial reporting arise from many sources including changes in accounting rules, changes in reporting entity, accounting errors, and fraud (or “irregularities”). Theory predicts that audit effort (measured by audit fees) and financial report restatements should be negatively associated because more audit effort means that auditors should be more likely to find errors or other issues that could lead to later restatement (Shibano 1990; Matsumura and Tucker, 1992; Lobo and Zhao, 2013). However, other studies have found either a positive association or no association between audit fees and subsequent restatements (Kinney et al., 2004; Stanley and DeZoort, 2007; Cao …

Interpersonal Affect, Accountability And Experience In Auditor Fraud Risk Judgments And The Processing Of Fraud Cues, Jennifer Schafer, Brad Schafer

Faculty and Research Publications

This paper examines whether auditors’ affect toward client management influences fraud likelihood judgments and whether accountability and experience with fraud risk judgments moderate this effect. This research also explores the process by which affect influences fraud judgments by examining affect’s influence on the evaluation of fraud evidence cues. Results indicate that more positive affect toward the client results in lower fraud likelihood judgments. Accountability is found to moderate this effect, but only for experienced auditors. These findings have implications for fraud brainstorming sessions where all staff levels provide input into fraud risk assessments and because client characteristics are especially salient …

Strategies For Improving Profitability Through Effective Internal Controls, Melissa M. Washington

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Between 2007 and 2009, the United States experienced a financial crisis. Many businesses experienced difficulties obtaining funds for projects and working capital due to the great recession. As a result, many business owners filed for bankruptcy. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that some small business owners in the construction industry used when implementing internal control processes to improve profits. The study population entailed 6 individuals in the southeast region of the United States who successfully implemented internal control processes to improve profits. The data collected were from face-to-face interviews, analysis of company documents, and …

The Preventive Effects Of Whistleblowers On Fraud In Nonprofits, Elizabeth Evankovich

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Constructive Ambiguity And Judicial Development Of Insider Trading, Jill E. Fisch

All Faculty Scholarship

The Texas Gulf Sulphur decision began what has become a fifty-year project of developing U.S. insider trading regulation through judicial lawmaking. During the course of that project, the courts developed a complex, fraud-based approach to determining the scope of liability. The approach has led, in many cases, to doctrinal uncertainty, a result that is reflected in the recent decisions in Newman, Salman, and Martoma.

n the face of this uncertainty, many commentators have called for a legislative solution. This article argues, however, that the true challenge of insider trading regulation is a lack of consensus about the …