South Carolina State Board of Accountancy Violation Cases of 2008
In order to become a Certified Public Accounting (CPA) one must take and pass the CPA exam issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). In order to receive licensing, one must follow the guidelines of their respective state in order to obtain a license from that state’s Board of Accountancy to get into practice. With any practice there are rules and guidelines that a person must follow. The Code for CPAs is in place in order to ensure that licensees practice accounting without any problems or discrepancies. As we all know, with any law, rule, or guideline there are loopholes and people that try to work their way around the rules or blatantly not follow them. In the state of South Carolina, there are many people and firms that violate the Code. When the Code is violated, the state board will hold a hearing and decide on the matter and issue a penalty. The following explains a few of these violations made in the year 2008 and the penalties issued by the South Carolina State Board, along with an opinion on the decisions made.
On January 9th, Jerry Hanes went before the Board for violating SC Code 40-2-100. Mr. Haynes was operating a business using the term “Accounting” without a license to do so. His business, Haynes Business Accounting and Tax Services, “cease and desist from the performance of any act which would constitute the unlicensed practice of accounting.” This penalty is fair in my opinion. A person or business cannot provide accounting services without a state issued license. Therefore, ordering Mr. Haynes to stop all unlicensed accounting activities is fair.
The same judgment was given to a few other people and companies in th...
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... and should have received a harsher punishment.
As stated earlier, all laws and rules have loopholes; you just have to know what to look for. The saying “all laws are meant to be broken” is evident in the above cases. The Code of Professional Conduct has rules and guidelines for CPAs to follow while in practice. Those who do not follow the Code sometimes get away with it, but in other cases they do not. That is when offenders come before the State Board and the Board’s members decide how to handle the violation. In some cases, the penalty matches the violation and in some cases they do not. Either way all CPAs should try their best to follow the Code so that the public’s confidence in them is not tainted.
Works Cited
"South Carolina Board of Accountancy." LLR. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. .
In addition, by deciding not to inform the limited partners of Ed’s deceit, Andrea would be disregarding the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Code of Professional Conduct in her being unreliable, dishonest and deceitful. Andrea has the responsibility of protecting her client, which involves encouraging the correction of financial statements in order to prevent suspicion during audits that could lead to fines and imprisonment.
...not have occurred (again the out-dated accounting system shortfall). Further, analytical procedures could be used to compare budgets / forecasts to actual results and variations could be investigated (i.e. expenses higher than anticipated or profit less than anticipated). The following is article by Tracy Coenen is more critical of KOSS' management than of the auditor, Grant Thorton. She contends that while auditor should have caught this fraud, management is more to blame because of not addressing internal control issues. http://www.sequenceinc.com/fraudfiles/2010/01/koss-corp-fraud-defending-grant-thornton-no/
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Which section of the California Accountancy Act enables the Board of Accountancy to discipline an applicant that cheated on the CPA exam, or help someone else cheat? Is helping someone else cheat is a serious cheating? Why is the Board of Accountancy concerned with this issue? Apply Kant’s theory of universalizing the principle to cheating on the CPA
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Although the plant accountant knew it was wrong to charge motors to operating expenditures, the accountant bowed to the pressure to do it anyway. The accountant violated the AICPA code of conduct, especially regarding serving the public interest. There were also issues with honesty and integrity.
The case Graham v. Florida (No. 08-7412), which consists of the seventeen years old teenager Terrance Graham as the appellant and the Florida Supreme Court as the appellee, was decided under the Eighth Amendment by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in the U.S. Supreme Court on May 17th, 2010.
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) of 1986 is a foundational piece of legislation that has shaped computer crime laws for the United States. It was spawned from Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, Section 1030 that established three new federal crimes to address computer crimes. According to Sam Taterka, “Congress tailored the statute to three specific government interests: national security, financial records, and government property” (Taterka, 2016). The statue was criticized for the narrow range of issues it covered and vague language.
Throughout the past several years major corporate scandals have rocked the economy and hurt investor confidence. The largest bankruptcies in history have resulted from greedy executives that “cook the books” to gain the numbers they want. These scandals typically involve complex methods for misusing or misdirecting funds, overstating revenues, understating expenses, overstating the value of assets or underreporting of liabilities, sometimes with the cooperation of officials in other corporations (Medura 1-3). In response to the increasing number of scandals the US government amended the Sarbanes Oxley act of 2002 to mitigate these problems. Sarbanes Oxley has extensive regulations that hold the CEO and top executives responsible for the numbers they report but problems still occur. To ensure proper accounting standards have been used Sarbanes Oxley also requires that public companies be audited by accounting firms (Livingstone). The problem is that the accounting firms are also public companies that also have to look after their bottom line while still remaining objective with the corporations they audit. When an accounting firm is hired the company that hired them has the power in the relationship. When the company has the power they can bully the firm into doing what they tell them to do. The accounting firm then loses its objectivity and independence making their job ineffective and not accomplishing their goal of honest accounting (Gerard). Their have been 379 convictions of fraud to date, and 3 to 6 new cases opening per month. The problem has clearly not been solved (Ulinski).
Ross A. Johnson violated section 5061 which prohibits those engaged in the practice of public accountancy from accepting commissions. I feel as though he should have never accept commissions knowing that you cannot accept commissions while practicing public accountancy. So there for his CPA license was suspended as of July 7, 1994.
His project manager, Oliver Freeman, changed the analysis. that Daniel submitted in order to get a clear opinion so that their firm may get an exclusive account. The. My decision was to report the incident so that the correct information would be supplied in the audit documents. The decision I chose may cost Baker Greenleaf to lose an important client and Oliver Freeman to lose his job, but it will uphold the integrity of the accounting profession and keep Daniel Potter safe from the liability of providing false information.
Based on a true story, after taking over her father’s business, a manipulative woman, who fantacies the perfect life, becomes obsessed with a business psychic, until the psychic discovers that she’s brazenly committing millions in bank fraud. STORY COMMENTS RIVETED is inspired by true events. The idea of telling the story about a woman, who pulls off a multi-million dollar bank scheme, is an appealing concept for a film. The premise features a strong hook.
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As accountants, we have an ethical obligation under the AICPA Code that requires us to place the public's interest ahead of all other interest, including our own self-interest and that of our employer or client. We must be independent, make decisions objectively, exercise due care, and must act with integrity. The standards of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) are similar to the Professional Conduct in the AICPA Code. Moreover, the principles of the AICPA Code include responsibilities, the public interest, integrity, objectivity and independence, due care, and scope and nature of services. The IMA provides guidance on issues relating to competence, confidentiality, integrity, and credibility. The Resolution of Ethical Conflict section
4) . One of the largest bankruptcies in history was enabled by accountants hiding debt and destroying the evidence to avoid implication (Buckstein, part 2 pgs. 1, 2, and 3). These unfortunate events led to the need for increased scrutiny and regulations, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Buckstein, part 3 pg 1). This legislation inspired the creation of the Canadian Public Accountability Board (CPAB) (Buckstein, part 3 pg 1). These changes have led to an increased awareness of the need for auditor independence as well as higher standards for accounting and business in general (Buckstein, part 3 pg 1). While these measures have helped to reassure the public, there is still the question of why Accountancy is not a protected