Case Study: Conflicting Clients
Topic: Auditing (Confidentiality, Misrepresentation of Facts)
People Involved:
Jennifer Grace, First year member of her CPA firm’s management group
Tom Ward, CFO of Fantastic Developments, Inc., a client
While reviewing the current-year audit working papers of Coshocton National Bank (CNB), the engagement manager, Jennifer Grace, noted something curious. In the working papers related to loan valuation, Jennifer saw that the commercial loan of Fantastic Developments had been randomly selected for confirmation but that Fantastic had not responded to either the initial or second confirmation request. The audit staff disposed of this “loose end” by alternate procedures: examining cash collections (which had become somewhat sporadic) and vouching to underlying loan documentation, including a set of recent (unaudited) financial statements that showed Fantastic’s solid financial position and operating profitability.
Jennifer noted this reference to Fantastic De
