As a certified fraud examiner, Laura Wu has been retained by an attorney to investigate an overstatement of revenue fraud at Unlimited Growth Ltd. All sales to the company are on credit (i.e., there are no cash sales). Laura has found an entry in the records debiting accounts receivable and crediting the Sales account on the last day of the fiscal year.
a. Would confirmations help her gather evidence in preparing for prosecution of financial statement fraud? Why?
b. Laura employed a novice fraud examiner to help her in the investigation. After an employee of Unlimited Growth had prepared the confirmation letters (using the positive “in-blank” type), her novice fraud examiner reviewed the letters and asked another employee (who had worked at Unlimited Growth for 12 years and had a character that was beyond reproach) to mail them for him. The confirmations were all returned, and all recipients had indicated that the information provided in the letter agreed with their records. Should Laura be concerned about the process her fraud examiner used and the results?