Assignment: Financial Statement Fraud
You have been hired by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a fraud prevention and detection expert. The position you were hired for is to provide training to SEC employees on lessons learned from financial statement fraud.
Using the Internet or Strayer databases, research at least two major fraud cases that were a result of financial statement fraud.
Write a four to six page paper in which you:
1. Assess the culture of the organizations that you researched, analyzing the corporate culture or "tone at the top".
2. Assess the causes of the financial statement fraud(s) and the effectiveness of fraud prevention and detection at those companies based on the research you conducted. Provide support for your assessment.
3. Propose what could / should have been implemented in those companies that would have preventedor detected the fraud, indicating who should have been responsible for the implementation. Provide support for your proposal.
4. Explore the roles and responsibilities at these companies and assess if that contributed to the fraud, indicating how these roles should be changed to prevent future fraudulent activity. Provide support for your rationale.
5. Evaluate the effectiveness of SEC regulation and requirements, indicating improvements needed to detect fraud in the future. Provide support for your recommendations.
6. Use at least three quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the professor's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
• Create an approach to implementing a fraud detection plan.
• Research and analyze the impact of fraud on financial reporting within a corporation.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in fraud prevention and detection.
• Write clearly and concisely about fraud prevention and detection using proper writing mechanics.