Leslie Fay Companies Paul Polishan apparently dominated Leslie Fay ’s accounting and financial reporting functions and the individuals who were his subordinates. What implications do such circumstances pose for a company ’s independent auditors? How should auditors take such circumstances into consideration when planning an audit? My question for the Leslie Fay Companies case focuses on the actions of Paul Polishan and the effect his self-established tyranny over the financial information
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The Leslie Fay Companies‚ which is a manufacturer of women’s apparel‚ was founded by Fred Pomerantz. The company is based out of New York‚ and Fred Pomerantz made the company public in 1952. However‚ Fred Pomerantz ended up taking the company back to a private entity for a few years in the 1980’s due to a buy out from his son John Pomerantz. The Leslie Fay Companies became public again in 1986. After John Pomerantz had taken over the company‚ profits started skyrocketing even though the
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ACCT 497 Writing assignment 1 Siqi Wang The Leslie Fay Companies Analytical Procedures Report Executive Summary After reviewing the Financial Report from The Leslie Fay Companies from 1987 to 1991‚ I made ratios of Balance Sheet and Income Statement to start with audit planning‚ which could help us make comparison directly. Also‚ the calculation of ratios in liquidity‚ activity‚ profitability and solvency contains in my report. The purpose of analytical procedures is to detect “red flags” within
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The Leslie Fay Companies (Leslie Fay) was a designer specializing in women’s stylish dresses. The company was run by Fred Pomerantz and subsequently by his son‚ John Pomerantz. Both Pomerantz men were known for their lavish lifestyles and overbearing personalities. Fred had hired Paul Polishan right out of college in 1969 to join the accounting staff at Leslie Fay. Polishan would later go on to become the company’s CFO. Polishan‚ as it seemed‚ had an even more overbearing personality than either
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The Leslie Fay Companies Knapp Case 1. The financial statement items that I believe should have been particular interest to BDO Seidman are the inventory primarily and then the sales. BDO Seidman should have noticed that according the ratios‚ the sales were at a steady rate until the year 1991. The inventory of the company was also having issues with sales due to Leslie Fay not keeping up with the latest fashions and because of a slight recession. According to the ratios and common size statement
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(Gupta‚ 2004). The financial ratios are then compared with the entity ’s ratios for prior periods as well as with ratios for other businesses in the same industry. A comparison with the industry ratios would have warned BDO of some irregularities in Leslie Fay ’s financial statements. BDO Seidman should have been interested some important ratios that would help in determining the accuracy of the financial statements that had been prepared by Polishan and his staff. The important ratios include the liquidity
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Leslie Fay Case 1. After reviewing the common size financial statements and the key ratios of Leslie Fay‚ there some of the financial statement item that should have been of particular interest to BDO Seidman: 1).Sales: the sales has been growing steadily except the slight drop in 1991‚ which is contrary to the industry recession. 2). Inventory: Leslie Fay has been known for not catching up the fashion‚ there should be inventory write-off issue in the apparel industry‚ which haven’t been reflected
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When planning an audit‚ it is important to consider the credibility of the client. In a perfect world it would be in the audit firms best interest to have unethical clients. As we all know even the reputable firms get caught up in a fraud scandal. In the case of Leslie Fay‚ Paul Polishan had a reputation of being a strict executive that even had rules for what you could have at your desk. He kept a close watch on his subordinates with his tough rules and long hours. In accordance with AU 230.09
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Background The Leslie Fay Companies was a women’s apparel manufacturer established by Fred Pomerantz‚ a former Women’s Army Corps uniform maker during World War II. Despite the “volatile and intensely competitive” (Knapp 34) nature of the industry‚ Leslie Fay grew to have the second largest annual sales compared to any of the other publicly owned women’s apparel manufacturers‚ only behind Liz Claiborne. Fred Pomerantz hired Paul Polishan for a position in the accounting department where Polishan
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Question 1: Name two cases in which companies have committed frauds by misstating inventory. Crazy Eddie and Goodner Brothers case are the good example for the inventory fraud cases. Question 2: What makes the intentional misstatement of inventory difficult to detect? When you have the most senior management of the company‚ particularly its financial management‚ consciously setting out to fool the auditors‚ to hide information from them‚ as they testified in the Monus trial‚ it’s very hard to
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