How Did Barry Minkow Able To Execute And Perpetuate His Fraud

. In general, how was Barry Minkow able to execute and perpetuate his fraud for so long?

Barry Minkow was able to execute and perpetuate his fraud for so long based on numerous factors. For starters, Minkow being such a young business owner was most likely impressive to others, perceiving him as a youth with perseverance, motivation, and innovation. Also, coming from a middle class family, who was probably hard-working and respected, Minkow was probably viewed as having good morals and the exemplary businessman. Having the ability to put on a show and momentarily conform to whatever was requested at the moment to continue his fraud he finagled. The enhanced period of time was also due to the numerous schemes he utilized, such as "kiting checks;

Though Minkow should have been the expected businessman of integrity, auditors cannot allow themselves to be blindsided and must focus on their specific tasks necessary of all audits. The auditors should have been thorough and required complete cooperation with their review of his records. If the auditors had maintained their role, Minkow may have been caught sooner as financial statements would not have been able to be reconciled. Also, if the auditors required Minkow to provide more information, he may have become defensive at some point or quickly prepared items to satisfy the requests, which in turn may not make sense. It is necessary to add that even if the auditors did complete a substantial amount of the audit utilizing their normal procedures, Minkow may have been just that good that he was able to manipulate most everything. However, it is expected that a good auditor would have tripped into some type of a red flag that would have brought them to the discovery of further more extreme

Though there may be the occasional reformer, after handling numerous investigations over the years, I would lean more towards once a fraudster always a fraudster. After learning about Minkow and his reform, which entailed becoming a pastor and providing services to the FBI and SEC by means of his Fraud Discovery Institute business, it reminded me of the several cases involving similar schemes that included welfare fraud by pastors or well-known members of our society that were motivational speakers and CEO’s of agencies receiving federal funds. When these individuals commit a fraud, it is a devious act in numerous ways. There are also the numerous repeat offenders, such as child care providers that are paid by the State on behalf of eligible parents. Many have stated that they thought that if they were caught once it would never happen again. Therefore, they commit fraud again taking their chances. It also can be a vicious circle in that the individual states that they would not commit fraud again, but may come upon another period of time of financial difficulty or pure greed and rationalize their actions through opportunities and their perceived needs. The individual then reoffends. An individual is either instilled with a conscience and integrity or they are not. I feel that it is very hard to teach someone those items