7 1 Final Project Milestone Three Hypothesis Development And Investigation Planning

ACC 646 Milestone Three Guidelines and Rubric

Overview

Forensic accounting has been identified as the fastest growing area of accounting. Fraud examiners must understand the legal aspects of fraud and what constitutes fraud. To be successful in this industry, they must be able to determine why people commit fraud and how to prevent it from happening. Through this analytical process, examiners may then provide organizations with recommendations for improving their internal controls, thus preventing further financial losses and additional harm to their reputations.

For Milestone Three, you will submit your hypothesis development and investigation plan for your company. Consider potential frauds and perpetrators in your company, how the fraud could be investigated, regulatory issues, and any other fraud risk inquiries required. Once you have developed your fraud hypothesis, propose an investigation plan. Describe the process of how you would investigate the potential fraud and all of the factors that must be considered for carrying out the investigation.

Prompt

Develop a fraud hypothesis for your case and a plan for investigating the fraud.

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

Hypothesis Development
1. What frauds could occur in the environment you researched? How are these related to the specific company, the industry, and the economic conditions as a whole?
2. Of all of the employees mentioned, who would have incentives or opportunities to commit fraud? Why?
3. Which of the employees who had the incentive or opportunity to commit fraud is in a position to cause the financial anomalies found? Explain why.
Investigation Planning
1. Describe the process of how could you investigate the potential fraud and the appropriate steps to complete the process.
2. What documents might you need? Who might you need to speak with regarding the fraud? Support your responses.
3. Illustrate how regulatory issues such as Sarbanes–Oxley or SAS No. 99 would impact the investigation.
4. What other fraud risk inquiries are needed to investigate the suspected fraud? What steps would need to be taken to address these risk inquiries?

What to Submit

Your fraud hypothesis and investigation plan must be submitted as a 2–3 page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12- point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and at least three sources cited in APA format.

Milestone Three Rubric

CriteriaProficient (100%)Needs Improvement (75%)Not Evident (0%)ValueHypothesis Development: Occur in the EnvironmentExplains what frauds could occur in the environment researched and how they are related to the specific company, the industry, and the economic conditions as a wholeExplains what frauds could occur in the environment researched but does not explain how they are related to the specific company, the industry, and the economic conditions as a whole or explanation is cursory or contains inaccuraciesDoes not explain what frauds could occur in the environment researched14Hypothesis Development: Incentives or OpportunitiesDetermines which of the employees would have incentives or opportunities to commit the fraud and defends responseDetermines which of the employees would have incentives or opportunities to commit the fraud but does not defend responseDoes not determine which of the employees would have incentives or opportunities to commit the fraud14Hypothesis Development: Which EmployeesDetermines which of the employees with the incentive or opportunity to commit fraud is in a position to cause the financial anomalies found and explains whyDetermines which of the employees with the incentive or opportunity to commit fraud is in a position to cause the financial anomalies found but does not explain whyDoes not determine which of the employees with the incentive or opportunity to commit fraud is in a position to cause the financial anomalies found14Investigation Planning: ProcessDescribes the process of how the potential fraud could be investigated and the appropriate steps to complete the processDescribes the process of how the potential fraud could be investigated but is cursory or lacks important stepsDoes not describe the process of how the potential fraud could be investigated14Investigation Planning: DocumentsDetermines what documents might be needed and who might need to be spoken to regarding the fraud and supports responsesDetermines what documents might be needed and who might need to be spoken to regarding the fraud but does not support responsesDoes not determine what documents might be needed and who might need to be spoken to regarding the fraud14Investigation Planning: Regulatory IssuesIllustrates how regulatory issues would impact the investigationIllustrates how regulatory issues would impact the investigation but does not apply a variety of regulatory issues to the case studyDoes not illustrate how regulatory issues would impact the investigation14Investigation Planning: Fraud Risk InquiriesDetermines what other fraud risk inquiries are needed to investigate the suspected fraud and the steps to address these risk inquiriesDetermines what other fraud risk inquiries are needed to investigate the suspected fraud but does not determine the steps to address these risk inquiriesDoes not determine what other fraud risk inquiries are needed to investigate the suspected fraud and supports response14Articulation of ResponseSubmission has no major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organizationSubmission has major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideasSubmission has critical errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas2Total:100%