First Brands Group, a large Cleveland-area auto parts supplier that owned well-known aftermarket brands such as FRAM oil and air filters, TRICO and ANCO windshield wiper blades, Raybestos brake components, and Autolite spark plugs, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2025 after amassing billions in debt. While in early January 2026, it was seeking […]
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Tag Archives: internal controls
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 stopped a Cargill accountant from embezzling $3.1 million?
April 25, 2017 2 Comments
Cargill, Inc., is the largest privately held corporation in the United States as measured by revenue. According to Wikipedia, if it were a publicly-held corporation, it would rank number 12 on the Fortune 500. In addition to its agricultural business, it also deals in energy, food ingredients, financial services, and a broad array of other […]
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Accounting in the Headlines 