Victoria A. Ladd, 51, was employed by Jos-Tech, Inc., a custom plastics fabricating company located in Kent, Ohio, for many years. From January 2013 until January 2018, she wrote several checks to herself and cashed them or deposited them into her personal accounts. She also authorized electronic payments from Jos-Tech’s bank accounts to pay off […]
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Tag Archives: fraud
Why is internal control important for companies – and for students – to understand?
September 9, 2017 
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An article in Accounting Today from September 7, 2017, has the headline “Internal control weaknesses correlate with financial fraud.” Three accounting researchers* have found that “…the incidence of fraud disclosures at companies previously found by auditors to have material weaknesses in their internal controls is approximately 80 to 90 percent greater than companies on average, […]
Continue readingWhat internal controls might have prevented a Sea World guest relations supervisor from voiding tickets and pocketing more than $116,000?
June 21, 2016 0 Comments
A guest relations supervisor at SeaWorld’s Aquatica waterpark in Orlando, Lisa Olivardia, would void ticket sales and put the cash in white envelopes that she then put in her pocket. Investigators estimate that she stole between $55,000 and $75,000 each year from 2013 – 2015. Her voided transactions were about triple the rate of her […]
Continue readingWhat internal control principles were violated at a Texas school district that allowed its superintendent to embezzle more than $750,000?
April 28, 2015 0 Comments
Beaumont Independent School District (BISD) is a public school district in Beaumont, Texas. It has three high schools, six middle schools, and 16 elementary schools, serving approximately 21,000 students. In February 2015, Patricia Lambert, former BISD Assistant Superintendent, was indicted for theft connected with her position in the school district. Lambert allegedly defrauded the school […]
Continue readingWhat internal control weakness at Netflix allowed its former VP of IT operations to allegedly receive kickbacks from technology firms?
February 17, 2015 1 Comment
In November 24, 2014, Netflix filed a lawsuit against its former vice president of IT operations, Mike Kail, alleging fraud, breach of fiduciary duties, and other charges. Here is an excerpt from the lawsuit filing in Superior Court of the State of California, Santa Clara County:. “…During his tenure at Netflix, including as Netflix’s Vice […]
Continue readingWhat internal controls might have prevented a former Smucker employee from stealing $4.1 million over 16 years?
November 4, 2014 2 Comments
In October 2014, a former Smucker employee, Mark Kershey, was charged with defrauding the J.M. Smucker Company of more than $4.1 million over a 16 year period. Kershey was the chief airplane mechanic at the company’s hangar at the Akron-Canton Airport in Ohio from 1990 until he was discharged by Smucker in 2013. From 1997 […]
Continue readingHow does the SEC allege that Diamond Foods fraudulently increased earnings?
February 19, 2014 0 Comments
Diamond Foods produces and markets Emerald snack nuts, PopSecret popcorn, and several other snack brands. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently charged Diamond and two of the company’s former executives (the CEO and the CFO) with misleading investors by fraudulently manipulating income (see “Diamond Foods to Pay $5 Million to Settle SEC Fraud Charges,” […]
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Accounting in the Headlines 