Assignment: Fraud Case
Levon Helm was a kind of one-man mortgage broker. He would drive around Ten-nessee looking for homes that had second mortgages, and if the criteria were favor-able, he would offer to buy the second mortgage for "cash on the barrelhead." Helm bought low and sold high, making sizable profits. Being a small operation, he employed one person, Cindy Patterson, who did all his bookkeeping. Patterson was an old family friend, and he trusted her so implicitly that he never checked up on the led-gers or the bank reconciliations. At some point, Patterson started "borrowing" from the business and concealing her transactions by booking phony expenses. She intended to pay it back someday, but she got used to the extra cash and couldn't stop. By the time the scam was discovered, she had drained the company of funds that it owed to many of its creditors. The company went bankrupt, Patterson did some jail time, and Helm lost everything.
Requirements
1. What was the key control weakness in this case?
2. Many small businesses cannot afford to hire enough people for adequate separa-tion of duties. What can they do to compensate for this?
For this assignment, you will discuss how Christian principles can be applied to an accounting fraud case. In a 500-750-word paper,
1. In approximately 100 words, briefly summarize the issue in your own words.
2. In approximately 450-600 words, address this issue from a Christian worldview as it relates to decision making and ethics. What guidance could be applied to understand and resolve the issue?
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.