White Collar Crimes and the Effects on Consumers and Globalization
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In today's world, technology is thriving. It is growing at a rapid rate and is present in almost all aspects of the average person's life and will continue to grow until it becomes a necessity of all the world. Along with great new inventions, and use of technology, there also comes a new type of crime. One that is done virtually. Thieves are now able to manipulate, calculate, and attain everything they need through technology. This has led to new vulnerabilities which companies, consumers, and investors have never faced before.
With a few clicks of a button, a thief can have everything they need to access a person's bank accounts and personal information. It has become too easy for people to go unnoticed and get away with white collar crimes. As the globalization of technology continues to grow, the chances of cyber-attacks also grows. These threats may harm our country and hand over our heads every day. This country is the harbinger for the globalization of technology and it is important that we will be able to use the accountants of today for tomorrow's warfare and have them ready and trained in order to protect our country. As globalization is occurring it is important that the severity of white collar crime is seen. It affects businesses, consumers, and investors; therefore it is important that Forensic accountants do their job and catch fraudulent people.
A lot of times white collar crimes are committed by employees in high positions. According to, "A Convicted Felon Speaks Out about White Collar Crime" by Sam Antar he states, "With today's computer automation and the ability to move money across borders in seconds, and the fact that banks and financial institutions handle gross dollar value transactions on a single day" (Antar). It is important to have a creditable accountant to ensure Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are being followed and guidelines from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), are being followed. In the article "Inside the Mind of the White Collar Criminal" written by Bill Barrett, he discussions that not having a proper accountant this type of crime could easily go unnoticed; he says that "Sometimes the first sign of fraud is just a feeling that something is not quite right. Numbers may not totally add up, or internal controls may be sloppy. A gut instinct can be very helpful when trying to catch white-collar criminal" (Barrett). By hiring a good forensic accountant, companies can be reassured that they will catch anything that is a red flag for white collar crimes.
White collar crimes can greatly affect the consumers. When the accountant, Bill Barrett, in the article "Inside the Mind of a White Collar Criminal" noticed that something was wrong he first saw that the companies' profits had significantly dropped and the loss of companies trickles down and in turn affects the consumer. This means that the criminals need be accountable for their actions to ensure the customer's safety. The accountants are there to catch the criminal, and they do this by tracing the money which usually involves, "The reconstruction and analysis of banking and other investments records." (Kahaian and Schehr) taken from the article "Using Forensic Accounting In Trust Disputes". Which is important in building the cases in order to be able to prosecute the criminals in an effective way which will hopefully deter people from wanting to commit these types of act. Furthermore being able to stop these acts in one nation, it could potentially limit the number of unethical acts; before they start in the vast era of globalization.
In the article "Accountants Gone Bad" Written by Joe Chidley he overviews the need for forensic accountants. He discusses that companies are acting in shady ways. That they use international trade to cover their tracks, they have pages and pages of account information that just doesn't add up, they shred documents that could be incriminating and they do all of this while maintaining their prestigious look. One example would be the Ponzi scheme, from the article "Using Forensic Accounting in Trust Disputes", which involved "[h]is ability to promptly return withdrawal requests to his clients when demanded. The credit crisis induced a large number of Madoffs clients to become uneasy and, as a result, more of them requested withdrawals than his over-inflated holdings could cover" (Kahaian and Schehr) the globalization skills make it so that the criminals can easily commit these actions. Without the investigations from forensic accountants this scheme would have never been revealed and the father and sons of the company would not have been rightfully prosecuted.
The article "Accountants Gone Bad" With the rise of globalization these jobs have gone from nerdy to T.V. drama worthy it states "I see Matt Damon as an idealistic accountant who discovers mischief in Enron's books, but his attempts to get the ear of Kenny-Boy Lay (played by an avuncular Mickey Rourke) fall on deaf, well, ears, leaving the audience with an overwhelming sense of waste, as befits all tragedies."(Chidley). The globalization of technology is opening up a whole new world accountants are no longer just number crunchers they are investigators and it is important to have a good one working for a company so they can reveal the things that are deceitful and detrimental to the company as well as its investors.
In conclusion, technological advances are inevitable and the fraud levels are continuing to rise because of it. "The best tool to combat white collar crime and increase the integrity of financial information is for companies to have strong internal controls which are reviewed by external independent auditors who are properly educated, skilled, trained and experienced. Strong internal controls create barriers to crime and result in the increased integrity of financial information. (Antar). The globalization of technology impacts everyone from investors to consumers and it is extremely important to have trained professionals in order to keep the country from losing too much money. Being the forerunners for this new development it is important, that as a society, we produce accountants that are well educated and ready to endure the new challenges of white collar crime, in the globalizing world.
Gloss