Overview
3 discussion responses with references in apa format
Initial information: Introduce yourself to the class by sharing a bit about yourself. This might include your preferred name and pronouns, your hobbies, where you are from, your professional experiences, or whatever you are comfortable sharing.
In this discussion, you will research a fraud case that has occurred or has been detected in the last year or two. For this discussion, find a recent news article or resource (published within the last two years) that describes a fraud case. To search for resources on the Shapiro Library website, use the following steps:
- Under the Find Articles, eBooks, & More menu item, select Find News & Current Topics.
- Use the Multi-Search field to combine key words. For example, bonds and debts or forensic accounting.
- Use the Refine Results feature to limit the search to news articles from the past five years.
- Review the search results to find a resource that piques your interest.
Create one initial post, and respond to at least two of your classmates.
For your initial post, address the following:
- Introduce yourself and share your experience with forensic accounting and fraud examinations.
- What are the major details of the fraud case that you researched, and how was it detected?
- What was the responsibility of the forensic accountant in the fraud case that you researched?
For your response posts, address the following:
- What do you have in common with your peers? Ask any questions you may have about their relevant experiences and/or professional goals.
- How do the characteristics of the fraud case you researched compare with the one your peer researched?
- What specific skills or training did the forensic accountant have that played a crucial role in the fraud case?
Remember, your contributions to the discussion play an important part in building the classroom learning community. This assignment is graded on the quality of your initial post and at least two response posts to your classmates. If you refer to any resources, be sure to include an attribution (or citation) to the resource following APA guidelines.
1-Hi class,
My name is Velia and my background is in Human Resources although I have a B.S. degree in Business Administration. I recently made a career change into the world of Internal Auditing. I am very much in the learning stage of this fascinating area. I enjoy going to the movies and spending time with my family. I look forward to learning from each of you.
While my experience specifically in investigating fraud incidents is limited, the majority of my investigative work has focused on employee complaints related to non-compliance with company policies. That said, I have handled several cases involving timekeeping and payroll-related fraud. As a result of those investigations, I implemented preventative controls to help mitigate similar fraud risks within the organization.
For this homework assignment, I chose an article that discusses falsification of student data that resulted in increased state funding. This case was detected due to an anonymous complaint to the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General (Garisto, 2025). According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, ACFE, 43% of Occupational frauds are detected by a tip.
In this case, the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General is investigating the Sumter County School District for alleged misconduct under former Superintendent Richard Shirley. A complaint claims the district created “shell schools” to hide low-performing students and boost state funding, with involvement from Shirley’s family members. Allegations include falsifying student data, enrolling students in virtual schools without parental consent, and denying special education students their required services.
Current Superintendent Logan Brown condemned the actions as unethical and has pledged to restore transparency, implement oversight protocols, and rebuild trust in the district. Shirley retired soon after the investigation began (Garisto, 2025).
Although, the responsibility of the forensic accountant is not detailed in the article, a forensic accountant would have taken several actions. Some of those actions would have included:
- examined record related to student enrollment, they would have identified discrepancies between the reported data and actual transactions
- analyzed how state funds were distributed based on the falsified date
- determined whether any individuals personally benefited from the fraudulent activity (bonuses, promotions, etc.)
- secured financial documents, emails enrollment records, and internal communications
- calculated financial losses or misappropriated fund that resulted from this fraud (Rufus et al., 2014).
References:
ACFE. (2025). Occupational Fraud 2024 A Report to the Nations. ACFE. https://legacy.acfe.com/report-to-the-nations/2024...
Julie Garisto, L. D. C. (2025, June 9). State report alleges procedural misconduct under former Sumter County school leadership. Daily Commercial: Web Edition Articles (Leesburg, FL).
Rufus, R., Miller, L., & Hahn, W. (2014). Forensic Accounting. Pearson Education (US). https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9780133867534
2-Hello Dr. Pierre-Paul & Class,
I hope this post finds you all well this evening.
Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Maria Olson, and I live in Arizona in a little city called Lake Havasu City—home of the famous London Bridge. Have any of you heard of it or been here? I grew up here and swore back in 1999 when I graduated high school that I was never coming back. Well... I’ve been back since 2004, and now, 21 years later, I’m still here. I wouldn’t change much—except maybe those overly hot summers when it gets past 120°F. It’s just too hot to do anything!
I hold a BS in Kinesiology, a Master’s in Business Administration, and a Graduate Certificate in Accounting from SNHU. Now, I’m diving into Forensic Accounting. I’ve been married to my wonderful husband for nearly 3.5 years. We don’t have children, unless you count our 7-year-old rescue Chihuahua, Hope, and our 4-year-old dachshund, Abigayle (who we’ve had since she was just 8 weeks old—she’s a bit of a psycho-pants!).
Career-wise, I worked at Starbucks for 14 years and left in 2019. I then joined an HVAC/plumbing/electrical company, where I started in customer service and HR, eventually moving into accounting. That’s where I really discovered my passion for numbers, research, and investigation. Since October 2024, I’ve been working for another local plumbing company as a Dispatch Coordinator, with hopes of transitioning fully into accounting.
When I’m not doing homework, I’m part of an all-ladies book club that meets biweekly. My husband and I enjoy paddleboarding and going to the gym, and lately I’ve become hooked on thrift store shopping. I also go down rabbit holes researching eco-friendly cleaning products and homesteading trends—yes, those exist!
I’ll admit, that this is my first time diving into forensic accounting, and I’m looking forward to the course content and learning from all of you.
Speaking of accounting and fraud…
I don’t know about you, but I love to shop and am always hunting for deals at big-name retailers. So, I was shocked to stumble on an article revealing that Macy’s was involved in an accounting fraud scandal in 2024. Here's what I found:
-In late November 2024, Macy’s discovered that a single employee had intentionally hidden between $132–$154 million in small-package delivery expenses using fraudulent accrual entries and falsified documents. This went on for three years, from Q4 2021 through November 2024, and was only uncovered during the preparation of the Q3 2024 financial statements. The individual was terminated, and while they were not motivated by personal gain, their actions had serious consequences. This discovery led to an internal investigation, financial restatements, and Macy’s launching of enhanced internal controls, ethics and compliance retraining, and forensic audits to prevent future misconduct. The scandal deeply affected investor trust, violated key accounting principles, and required significant corrective action by the company (Fickenscher, 2024).
Reference: Fickenscher, L. (2024, December 11). Macy’s rogue employee hid $151M in expenses to cover up mistake, wasn’t motivated by personal gain. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2024/12/11/business/macys-rogue-employee-hid-151m-in-expenses-to-cover-up-mistake-wasnt-motivated-by-personal-gain-report/
3-Hello everyone,
My name is Valerie, and I live in a small town outside of San Antonio, TX with my husband and daughters, 16 and 6. My daughters keep us busy with all their activities, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Before the kids signed up for everything, we used to go to truck and car meets but that seems like a distant memory now. I don’t have any experience with forensic accounting or fraud examinations, but I am looking forward to learning more about it.
The case I chose to research for this discussion is CIRCOR International and the charges of accounting fraud against its former finance director. In September 2024 the former finance director of CIRCOR International, Nicholas Bowerman, was charged with accounting fraud by SEC (SEC, 2024). This was regarding fraud from 2019 through October 2021 when it was discovered by the company’s investigation and reported to SEC. He was able to falsify financial documents results before they were input into the financial statements and provide fake bank documents and certifications to mislead management and independent auditors (SEC, 2024). This led to an overstatement of its performance for these years.
The responsibility of the forensic accountant on this case would be to identify which financial documents were altered and falsified to achieve the fraud, trace the flow of the activity, and report how the fraud was able to be carried out. From this, they were able to find out exactly how long the fraud had been going on and the areas in which CIRCOR needed to improve and implement measures to prevent fraud in the future.
References
SEC. (2024, September 5). SEC Charges Former Finance Director at CIRCOR International with Accounting Fraud. SEC. https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024-116