The following information was obtained from several accounting and auditing enforcement releases issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after its investigation of fraudulent financial reporting involving Just for Feet, Inc.:
Just for Feet, Inc., was a national retailer of athletic and outdoor footwear and apparel based in Birmingham, AL. The company incurred large amounts of advertising expenses and most vendors offered financial assistance through unwritten agreements with Just for Feet to help pay for these advertising expenses. If Just for Feet promoted a particular vendor’s products in one of its advertisements, that vendor typically would consider agreeing to provide an “advertising co-op credit” to the Company to share the costs of the advertisement. Just for Feet offset this co-op revenue against advertising expense on its income statement, thereby increasing its net earnings. Although every vendor agreement was somewhat different, Just for Feet’s receipt of advertising co-op revenue was contingent upon subsequent approval by the vendor. If the vendor approved the advertisement, it would usually issue the co-op payment to Just for Feet in the form of a credit memo offsetting expenses on Just for Feet’s merchandise purchases from that vendor. The company’s CFO, controller, and VP of Operations directed the company’s accounting department to book co-op receivables and related revenues that they knew were not owed by certain vendors, including Asics, New Balance, Nike, and Reebok. These fraudulent practices resulted in over $19 million in fictitious pretax earnings being reported, out of total pretax income of approximately $43 million. The SEC ultimately brought charges against a number of senior executives at Just for Feet and some vendor representatives.
Required
What does it mean to approach an audit with an attitude of professional skepticism?
What circumstances related to the accounting treatment of the vendor allowances should increase an auditor’s professional skepticism?
What factors might have caused the auditor to inappropriately accept the assertions by management that the vendor allowances should be reflected in the financial statements?
Develop three probing questions related to the vendor allowances that the auditor should have asked in the audit of Just for Feet’s financial statements.
Answer :-
a ) :-
Proficient wariness basically comprises of two parts :
b ) ;-
c ) :-
d ) :-
Coming up next are the instances of three examining questions identified with the merchant stipends:
The following information was obtained from several accounting and auditing enforcement releases issued by the Securities...
The SEC issues Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases (AAERs) summarizing SEC actions concerning civil lawsuits brought by the SEC in federal court and related settlements from administrative proceedings. Visit the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov) and locate the link to Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases (AAERs) under the “Enforcement” tab. Locate AAER-3932 involving Maxwell Technologies, Inc. issued on March 27, 2018. Required Briefly describe how the Maxwell Technologies, Inc. 2011 and 2012 financial statements were misstated. Describe examples of deficiencies in Maxwell...
Auditing Related Party Transactions ABSTRACT As part of the risk assessment of a client firm, auditors are required to evaluate the risks of material misstatement associated with related party transactions. Related party transactions may be evaluated at a higher risk of material misstatement as they may not occur under normal market settings or they may be motivated by an intent to perpetrate fraud. This case presents information about the related party transactions and other facts surrounding the audit of a...
Auditing Related Party Transactions ABSTRACT As part of the risk assessment of a client firm, auditors are required to evaluate the risks of material misstatement associated with related party transactions. Related party transactions may be evaluated at a higher risk of material misstatement as they may not occur under normal market settings or they may be motivated by an intent to perpetrate fraud. This case presents information about the related party transactions and other facts surrounding the audit of a...
Please read the attached case: Navistar International and prepare answers to the following four questions In a bizarre twist to a bizarre story, on October 22, 2013, Deloitte agreed to pay a $2 million penalty to settle civil charges—brought by the PCAOB—that the firm violated federal audit rules by allowing its former partner to continue participating in the firm’s public company audit practice, even though he had been suspended over other rule violations. The former partner, Christopher Anderson, settled with...
Question 1( 8 marks) The following cover various ethical situations .For each you need to state whether there has been a violation or no violation of a general ethical principle and if there is a violation which ethical principle is violated.You need to also to briefly outline the reason for your answer in each situation . ( a) The Berowra Accountants are advertising a special in the local paper that they guarantee to provide their clients with a tax refund...
Commercialism versus Professionalism One area of concern for the accounting profession for the past 20 years has been the proliferation of alternative practice structures. Potential problems exist because the audit side of the business may be influenced by the public entity that controls it. One such situation involves K&B, CPA Associates, and Cryden Business and Tax Services. Billy Kamen, CPA, has been a partner of K&B for more than 30 years. He thought he had seen it all in the...
Unhealthy Accounting at HealthSouth PROBLEM In 1996, key executives of HealthSouth, one of the nation’s largest providers of health care services, began a massive fraud that eventually amounted to $2.7 billion. HealthSouth is a textbook case of unbridled greed combined with a lack of corporate governance, which illustrates the difficult situation that auditors face when clients perpetrate a massive, collusive fraud. HealthSouth was founded in 1984 by Richard Scrushy and coworkers at Lifemark, a Houston-based company that owned and managed...
a. Which of the following statements about managerial accounting is true? 1) Managerial accounting information is prepared for external users. 2) Managerial accounting information is a legal requirement. 3) The structure of managerial accounting practice is relatively flexible. 4) There are structured standards of acceptability for managerial accounting. b. Which of the following statements is incorrect with regard to a manufacturing firm? 1) Inventoriable costs include only prime costs. 2) Inventoriable costs include prime costs and manufacturing overhead costs. 3)...
Note: Answer Questions (p) and (q) using the following selected data for March, taken from Ryker Company’s financial statements: Cost of goods available for sale € 61,000 Manufacturing overhead 25,000 Cost of goods manufactured 51,000 Finished goods inventory — ending 10,000 Direct materials used 20,000 Sales 115,000 Selling and administrative expenses 30,000 Direct labour 15,000 Work-in-progress inventory — beginning 8,000 p. What was the gross margin for March? 1) €20,000 2) €34,000 3) €50,000 4) €64,000 q. What was the...
Questions: For Kroger deposits in transit: What is
the account titled Store deposits in-transit (refer to footnote 1)?
This is not an account you will find on the majority of company
financial statements. Why does Kroger include this account? Is it
odd that this account is larger than the cash balance? How do you
explain this?
Information Needed to Answer Questions:
Jan. 28, 2017 Jan. 30, 2016 $322 910 1,649 7,852 (1,291) 898 $ 277 923 1,734 7,440 (1,272) 790 9,892...