What Are You Prepared to Do to Make Your Dream Wedding Happen?

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Caleb Newquist

Okay ladies, we’re aware that some of you have the wedding fever. You want the string quartet, doves flying out of the house of worship, driving away in a Bentley while you leave your new hubby’s ex on her knees sobbing her stupid little head off. We get it.
What we don’t get is the lengths that a few of you are willing to go to make this super magical day happen.
Enter Joanne Kent, a 26 year old accountant who embezzled £470,000 from her employer. £50,000 went to bankroll her wedding, including £37,134 for the cliff-top hotel. That didn’t include the cost of the flowers, cars, and fireworks on the beach (all crucial).
And she would have gotten away with it had she not produced an American invoice that was in pounds rather than dollars. The poor girl was sentenced to two years for her little stunt and will likely have to pay the loot back. What’s not clear is if the guests will be demanding their gifts back.
Accountant stole £470,000 for wedding and luxury life [Telegraph]
More Theft for Necessities:
Accountant Steals from Toys ‘R’ Us, Buys Hookers Bentleys

Fraud

Sam Antar Wants You to Think Like a Crook

Caleb Newquist
January 10, 2010

In early December, the JDA gave us a little taste of how the mind of a crook works when she interviewed Sam Antar, the former CFO of Crazy Eddie’s.
We caught up with Sam again recently and in case you had decided that he had redeemed himself by speaking to universities, government agencies, and businesses telling those people how to detect fraud, Sam would take issue with that.
“I’m the same crook that I was when I was the CFO of Crazy Eddie’s. I haven’t changed. I got caught,” Sam told us. Sam doesn’t believe in redemption but he will tell you that he’s reformed, “A criminal is like an addict. You’re either in recovery or you’re not.”
In addition to his feelings on his past criminal behavior, Sam has strong opinions about the audit profession and how the current accounting curriculum does not adequately prepare young auditors for the masterminds they’re up against. “To catch a criminal, you’ve got to think like a criminal.”

Sam would never suggest that you all take a turn at white collar crime in order to become better auditors. That would disappoint your parents.
So what are his ideas? Here’s a few things to get you started:
• Sam believes that the current curriculum should be expanded to include criminology, criminal psychology, forensic accounting, and courses that focus on internal controls.
• With this expanded curriculum, an advanced degree program should be implemented for those students that wish to become CPAs.
• In addition, Sam believes that the CPA exam should be expanded to include a section dedicated to fraud.
We did some looking around and found that two schools: Carlow University in Pittsburgh and Franklin University in Columbus, OH both offer undergraduate degrees in Forensic Accounting and that two more: St. Thomas University in Florida and University of Charleston in South Carolina offer graduate degrees.
As long as white collar fraud remains front page news, there will be people asking “where were the auditors?” Right or wrong, that is the reality of the situation. You can fight it tooth and nail but ultimately the market will demand more forensic audits for high risk clients. Even if the odds of you finding a single fraudulent transaction in your entire career is nil, shouldn’t you be prepared for that chance?
Sam thinks so. And he convinced (or maybe just conned?) us. You still got it, Sam.
Photo by Buck Ennis for Crain’s New York and Investment News.