PA Has Been Recently Appointed Auditor of Foible Ltd

question 46

Essay

PA has been recently appointed auditor of Foible Ltd., a company that exports high-cost knickknacks. To facilitate the rapid preparation of the financial statements, management had the physical inventory counted in October, rather than at the December year-end. During the inventory count, PA noticed that several of the boxes were labelled with receiving documents from a competitor. PA was told that the new warehouse supervisor worked part-time at the competitor and must have picked up the wrong boxes.
Several employees have sued Foible Ltd. for wrongful dismissal, claiming that they were promised a job that would last at least one year and would be provided with low cost accommodations. They are suing for the balance of the year's wages and are claiming that they were brought into the country under false pretenses. These employees are all from an Eastern-European country. The law firm has responded in a legal letter that this suit is without merit.
During the year, Foible obtained legal services from a firm in which Foible's Chairman of the Board of is a partner. Fees and disbursements for these services for the year were $125 000, a material amount.
During the audit, employees often spoke in a foreign language among themselves before responding to PA. Then one employee would respond after some (often heated) discussion.
Subsequent to the year end, the warehouse supervisor was arrested on criminal charges of theft, and Foible was charged with selling stolen goods. PA was charged as an accomplice to money laundering, as all of the management for Foible were members of a criminal group found to be laundering money from Eastern Europe.
Required:
Discuss the actions that PA could have taken during the engagement to prevent these charges.

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Definitions:

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

A renowned professor of business at Harvard Business School, known for her research on change management and confidence.

Power

The ability or capacity to influence or control the behavior of others, often through the possession of knowledge, resources, or authority.

Dependence

A situation in which one entity relies on another for support, resources, or needs fulfillment.

Capacity

The maximum amount that something can contain or produce, or the ability of something or someone to perform a function.