What are some business processes that could result in risks affecting financial reporting?
Sarbanes-Oxley Act a complex U.S congressional act that added and changed many laws aimed mainly at preventing and punishing various types of financial statement fraud among public companies. The act was originally passed in response to a wave of major corporate scandal, including Enron and WorldCom, and to a wave of bankruptcies related to the 2001. It also imposes requirements that affect every single business process in the organization that feeds into the financial statement. By some estimates, section 404 first-year compliance mandated all publicly traded companies average $ 2 million, and these costs were as much as $ 30 million for large corporation such as GE. In effect, SOX’s main effect on criminal liability is not to create new crimes but to increase penalties for crimes such as mail and wire fraud, which were increased from 5 to 2 years in prison, for example.
5. How important are information technology skills to the forensic accountant? Give five examples of ways that forensic accountants use information technology skills. Information technology knowledge and skills are necessary tools of the forensic accountant in a world filled which paperless crimes. At minimum, forensic accountants must know the point at which they should contact an expert in computer hardware or software. Examples of ways that forensic accountants use information technology skills to quarantine data, extract data through data mining, design and implement controls over data manipulation, accumulate baseline information for comparison purpose, and analyze data.