Acctg. 505
Fraud Examination
Spring 2014
Dr. Martha S. Doran
Phone/message: 594-6841
Office: SSE 2418
Email: doran1@mail.sdsu.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 2:30- 3:30, after class, by appointment, email or Skype
Course Design: Welcome to Fraud Examination, a course designed to offer
undergraduates and graduates an accounting elective that builds on your audit
coursework, but is not limited to an audit perspective. We will study the major schemes
used to defraud organizations and individuals. We will work to increase our skills in the
areas of fraud prevention, detection, analysis and some skills relating to investigations.
As a broad, survey course, you will be exposed to skills and tools that can help you
become better auditors, consultants, tax professionals, and managers, as well as more
astute employees and investors.
BSBA Program Goals
BSBA students will graduate being:
 Effective Communicators
 Critical Thinkers
 Able to Analyze Ethical
Problems
 Global in their perspective
 Knowledgeable about the
essentials of business
MSA Program Goals
MSA students will graduate with:
 Communication Skills
 Group/Interpersonal Skills
 Ethics
 Research Skills
 Global/International Skills
Acctg. 505 contributes to these goals through its student learning outcomes, as described
in the Objectives section.
Objectives: To provide students in accounting with a course that examines one of the
biggest problems facing business in the 21st Century: Fraud. By the end of the semester,
students should be able to:
 define the nature of fraud, who commits it and why,
 identify methods to prevent fraud,
 recognize the symptoms of fraud,
 evaluate approaches to detecting fraud,
 comprehend and apply fraud investigation techniques,
 apply ethical decision-making skills to fraud scenarios.
 make effective oral presentations in fraud awareness that are informative as well
as persuasive, and
 write well organized, readable case analyses, essays and reports using appropriate
fraud and accounting terminology.
Course texts:
Principles of Fraud Examination, by Joseph T. Wells, CFE, CPA from John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. – Third Edition
Course Prerequisites: Acctg. 421 or Acctg. 626 or equivalent.
Course Requirement in Community/Service Learning: Student teams will participate
in providing fraud awareness to a group in the community by designing, developing and
presenting a topic that can increase the public’s fraud awareness (as consumers,
employees, citizens). We will frame many of the class activities and discussions in terms
of how we can most effectively disseminate this knowledge to the target audience.
Students will need to gather initial fraud awareness information from the audience and
use this pre-survey information to design their presentations. Following the
presentations, students will collect some post-survey information from the audience and
use this to evaluate their efforts. Many of our cases and chapters focus on the theories and
practices in ethical decision-making, a key component of fraud prevention. Students will
have the opportunity to reflect on their work in designing fraud awareness presentations,
and then comparing their actual work to textbook materials. Our final class will include a
discussion of how the accounting professional can best serve the public, in light of each
team’s experience.
Teams: You need to form teams of 5 students. Ideally, teams should include 1) both
genders, and 2) both native and non-native English speakers. Please have teams formed
by Monday, 2/3. One team member needs to email me AND bring a team listing to
class on 2/3.
Blackboard Courseware:
You can access Blackboard by visiting http://courses.sdsu.edu. I will use this site to post
course materials, direct you to additional external links of interest, post grades and most
important, to communicate with you between classes. It is your responsibility to check
this site during the week and to check your email. (Remember that your email address,
PIN, etc. can only be edited or changed by you, using SDSU’s WebPortal.)
Grading Scale:
Final Grades will be determined based on the following scale: 90% of the points and
above will qualify for the A range (including A- and A); 80% - 89% of the points will
qualify for the B range (including B-, B and B+) ,73% - 79% will qualify for a C or C+,
70% - 72% will earn a C-, and below 70% will earn a D. (NOTE: Scoring less than 73%
of the points would not constitute graduate-level work and will be dealt with on a caseby-case basis.)
Graded Assignments: (Check the Schedule for Due Dates)
During the semester, you will produce a variety of “products” for me to evaluate, both to
help you conquer the new materials, as well as improve your existing skills in written and
oral communications. Additionally, these data points (graded assignments) will give me
a basis to form an opinion as to your final grade for the course. The final grade is the
university’s indicator of your level of achievement in the course. The more lasting record
is what you do with the results of your 15 week investment, and of which, you (and time)
will be the best evaluator!
The following categories describe what you will be required to turn in for a grade, along
with a tentative weighting of each requirement. Please refer to the class schedule for
due dates, and check Blackboard for more complete instructions for reports and
presentations.
Write-Ups (10%): You will individually complete and turn in various assignments noted
in the schedule. This will include (but not limited to), Discussion Question, Internet
assignments, two Reflection Essays, and Write-up of research on speakers. (Note: Before
each scheduled guest speaker, you will need to prepare a one page typed summary of
your on-line research of the topic or the speaker, including sources and any questions you
may have for the speaker.) Please check the course schedule for the various due dates.
Participation (10%): You have an opportunity (and responsibility) to share your ideas
and observations when we discuss the cases, the discussion questions, videos, readings,
etc. To help you become more aware of fraud in our society, you need to develop a
pattern of skimming and reading business headlines on fraud articles, information,
statistics, etc. We will start each class with time devoted to the headline sharing (In the
News). Some students find this a good way to be able to share (participate) more fully in
class. Class participation can only be earned IF you are present in class, you
voluntarily share your ideas, provide answers to questions I raise in class and you give
me a brief typed summary of your In the News article.
Journal Publication (20%): Individuals will prepare a paper, aimed at a possible journal
for publication, on a topic related to fraud. Topics need to be submitted to me no later
than 2/24. Students need to submit an Annotated Bibliography by March 10th. The
completed paper (article) is due on or before April 7th.
Exam (35%): The exam will include multiple choice questions, short case analysis, and
an In the News analysis, similar to the problems and cases we discuss in class.
Group Presentations (25%): At the end of the semester, 1) your team will present to the
class your findings on a local fraud the team has investigated, analyzed and presented in
the form of a fraud case. Your team will lead the class discussion of the case you have
researched and prepared. 2) Your team will design and develop a short fraud awareness
presentation to a community group and prepare and submit a report, and then share your
results with the class at our final meeting.
Ethical and Professional Behavior
Since our class is focused on gaining an awareness of fraud along with an understanding
of ethical decision-making, we need to adhere to the highest level of professional
behaviors. To make sure we all understand and are on the same page in terms of what the
university considers cheating and plagiarism, I have reproduced the policy below.
This class will follow the university policy in regard to cheating or plagiarism. If you
have ANY doubts as to what constitutes such behavior, please see me with any questions,
BEFORE you submit an assignment. Asking questions after I have brought cheating or
plagiarism issues to your attention does not help you or me or the profession!
Cheating or plagiarism in connection with an academic program at a campus.1
a)
Examples of cheating include unauthorized sharing of answers during an exam, use of
unauthorized notes or study materials during an exam, altering an exam and resubmitting it for
regrading, having another student take an exam for you or submit assignments in your name,
participating in unauthorized collaboration on coursework to be graded, providing false data for a
research paper, or creating/citing false or fictitious references for a term paper. (Submitting the
same paper for multiple classes may also be considered cheating if not authorized by the
instructors involved).
b) Examples of plagiarism include any attempt to take credit for work that is not your own, such as
using direct quotes from an author without using quotation marks or indentation in a paper,
paraphrasing work that is not your own without giving credit to the original source of the idea, or
failing to properly cite all sources in the body of your work.
1
Plagiarism: taken directly from SDSU’s Code Section 41301: