Category Archives for "Financial Statement Fraud"

Related party transaction
Dec 22

Related Party Transactions: Fraud

By Charles Hall | Auditing , Financial Statement Fraud , Fraud

Related party transactions can be a means to fraudulent financial reporting. Yet, auditors often don't detect the financial statement manipulation, leading to audit failure. This article explains how to understand and find fraudulent related party transactions. 

Related party transaction

Related Party Transaction

What is a related-party transaction?

It’s a transaction between two parties that have a close association. For example, two commonly owned businesses sell services or goods to one another. In another example, a business buys property from a board member or from the owner. 

Normal Related Party Transactions

Related party transactions are typical and often expected. For example, a business might rent real estate from a commonly owned entity. In such an arrangement, the rental rate can be at fair value. So if a company pays for twelve months' rent at a standard rate, everything is fine. No manipulation is occurring. 

Reason for Related Party Fraud

But in some cases, companies use related party transactions to deceive financial statement readers. Why? Because the business is not performing as well as desired, or maybe the company is not in compliance with debt covenants. (Noncompliance can trigger a call for repayment, or the loan can become a current liability based on accounting standards.) 

Fraudulent Increase in Net Income

Imagine this scene. It's December 15th, and management is reviewing its annual financial results. The CEO and CFO receive substantial bonuses if the company's net profit is over $10 million. At present, it looks as if the business is just short, with an expected net income of $9.7 million. They need another $300,000. 

So they develop a related party transaction whereby a commonly owned company pays their business $350,000 for bogus reasons--what auditors call a transaction outside the normal course of business. Since the CEO and CFO also manage the related entity, they control the accounting for both entities.  

Management performs the trick on December 27th, and soon they are toasting drinks in the back room. The bonus enables the CEO to buy his wife a new Tesla and the CFO to take a one-month trip to Europe. And it was so easy. 

In considering related party transactions, know that they are more likely with smaller entities, especially when one person owns several entities. So you'll want to know if associated businesses are making payments or loans to commonly owned companies.

Related Party Audit Procedures

As you begin your audit, request a list of all related-party transactions. Also, pay attention to such activity in the company's minutes. Additionally, electronically search company receipts, payments, and journal entry descriptions using the related party names. Then investigate any abnormal transactions outside the normal course of business, especially if they involve round-dollar amounts (e.g., $350,000). 

In performing your fraud inquires, ask about related party transactions and if any unusual transactions occurred during the year (or after the year-end). And make sure you interview persons responsible for initiating, approving, or recording transactions. In other words, inquire of the CEO and CFO, but also ask questions of others such as the cash receipts or the accounts payable supervisor. The CEO and CFO might hide the bogus transaction, but, hopefully, the cash receipts supervisor will not. 

As you can tell in the above example, you want to be aware of incentives for fraud, such as bonuses or the need to comply with debt covenants. 

Does It Make Sense?

If you see an unusual transaction, request supporting information to determine its legitimacy. I once saw a $5 million transaction at year-end, and when I asked for support, the journal entry said, "for prior services provided." You might receive some mumbo jumbo explanation for such a payment. But know this: vague reasons usually imply fraudulent activity. 

So, see if the economics make sense. Would a company pay that much for the services or products received? If not, you may need to propose an audit entry to correct the misstatement. 

Representation Letter

And, by the way, having the client sign a management representation letter saying the transaction is legitimate does not absolve the auditor. Either the payment is economically supportable, or it is not. 

Fraudulent Decrease in Net Income

Strangely, some companies desire to deflate their earnings. For example, maybe the company has had an unusually good year and wants to defer some net income for the future. So it is possible that related party payments are made to decrease earnings, and then the company might receive the same amount in the future from the related entity.  The result: expenses in the current year and revenue in the subsequent year. Again, we as auditors need to understand the goals and incentives of the company to understand how and why fraud might occur. 

Related Party Disclosures

Even if related party transactions are legitimate, businesses are required to disclose them. The related party disclosure should include the reason the other entity is a related party and the amount of the transactions. 

Financial Statement Fraud

The easiest way to fraudulently report financial activity--at least in my opinion--is to post deceptive journal entries. Those can be created without the use of related parties. For example, an entity might fraudulently debit receivables and credit revenue for $350,000. No revenue is earned but the entry is made anyway. 

The second easiest way—explained in this article—is fraudulent related party transactions. 

Either method can magically create millions in fraudulent revenue. So be on guard as you consider the possibility of transactions outside the normal course of business. 

Make sure you:

  1. Obtain a list of related parties
  2. Review minutes for related party activity
  3. Search records electronically for related party names
  4. Inquire of management and others about related party activity

See AU-C 550 Related Parties for AICPA guidance. 

earnings manipulation
May 30

Earnings Manipulation with Accounting Tricks

By Charles Hall | Financial Statement Fraud

Earnings manipulation is easy with the right–or should I say wrong–accounting tricks such as cookie jar reserves. In this article, we explore how businesses inflate profits and sometimes decrease the same, depending on what the company desires. Financial statement fraud is common, so let’s see how these schemes work. 

One Wall Street Journal article said a California company used “a dozen or more accounting tricks” including “one particularly bold one: booking bogus sales to fake companies for products that didn’t exist.” These machinations inflated earnings, making the company look more profitable than it really was. 

Today I show you how fraudsters use financial statement fraud to magically transform a company’s appearance. Then you will better know how to prevent these earnings manipulations.

earnings manipulation

What does it mean to inflate earnings? Inflating earnings means a company uses fraudulent schemes to make their earnings look better than they really are. 

Financial Statement Fraud

Companies can magically create earnings by:

  • Accruing fictitious income at year-end with journal entries
  • Recognizing sales for products that have not been shipped
  • Inflating sales to related parties
  • Recognizing revenue in the present year that occurs in the next year (leaving the books open too long)
  • Recognizing shipments to a re-seller that is not financially viable (knowing the products will be returned)
  • Accruing projected sales that have not occurred
  • Intentionally understating receivable allowances

Think about it: A company can significantly increase its net income with just one journal entry at the end of the year. How easy is that?

You may be thinking, “But no one has stolen anything.” Yes, true, but the purpose of manipulating earnings is to increase the company’s stock price. Once the price goes up, the company executives sell their stock and make their profits. Then the company can, in the subsequent period, reverse the prior period’s inflated entries.

Earnings Manipulation Control Weakness

Such chicanery usually flows from unethical owners, board members, or management. The “tone at the top” is not favorable. These types of accounting tricks usually don’t happen in a vacuum. Normally the top brass demands “higher profits,” often not dictating the particulars. (These demands are typically made in closed-door meetings with no recorders or written notes.) Then years later, once the fraud is detected, those same leaders will plead ignorance saying their lieutenants worked alone.

This why the control environment, an entity-level control, is so important. Codes of conduct and conflict of interest statements do matter. Moreover, communicating appropriate ethical requirements is critical to an organization’s integrity. 

Lower the Risk of Earnings Manipulation

The fix is transparency. This sounds simple, but transparency will usually remove the temptation to inflate earnings. If you work for a company (or a boss) that is determined to “win at any cost,” and repeatedly hides things (“don’t tell anyone about what we’re doing”), it is time to look for another job. When people hide what they are doing, they know it’s wrong–otherwise, why they wouldn’t hide it?

A robust internal audit department can enhance transparency. The board should hire the internal auditors. Then these auditors should report directly to the board (not management). The company’s internal auditors should know that the board has their back. If not, then you’ll continue to have opaque reporting processes. Why? The internal auditors’ fear of reprisal from management (or the board itself).

And what if the leaders of an organization won’t allow transparency? If possible, remove them. Unethical leadership will destroy a business.

Deflating Earnings (Cookie Jar Reserves)

Though much less likely, some businesses intentionally decrease their earnings with fraudulent accounting. Why would they do so? Maybe the business has an exceptionally good year, and it would like to save some of those earnings for future periods. For instance, management bonuses might be tied to profit levels. If those thresholds have already been met, it’s possible that the company will defer some current year earnings in order to ensure bonuses in the following year.

Deferring earnings is often called a cookie jar reserve. For example, if a company’s allowance for uncollectibles accounts is acceptable within a range (say 1% to 2% of receivables), it might use the higher percent in the current year. The higher reserve decreases current year earnings (the allowance is credited and bad debt expense is debited, increasing expenses and decreasing net income). Then in the following year, the company might use 1% to increase earnings (even though 1.75% might be more appropriate). This is called smoothing. 

Honest companies record their numbers based on what is correct, not upon desired results. But not all companies are honest. 

See my full article regarding how to audit receivables and revenues.

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