Coming into this class, I had heard of financial fraud within organizations, but had never taken the time to read a case study. After some browsing of the internet, I stumbled upon an article in the Journal of Accounting titled, “Lessons from an $8 million fraud.” A series of flaws in the company “ING” allowed an individual to personally embezzle 8 million dollars over 5 years.
Nathan Mueller’s ability to log into his coworkers accounts for the sake of being able to complete the work; automatically put the information system at risk. Combined with the overarching mistake, allowing Nathan to both request and approve checks of up to $250,000 opened the door for large scale financial fraud.
Despite claiming that he knew that he would someday be caught, he continued to embezzle more and more money in an attempt to continue living his newfound luxurious lifestyle. When it was all said and done, Nathan was sentenced to 97 months in prison. These facts made me ask myself two questions. One being, if Nathan could do it all over again, would he do it differently? The second being was the risk worth the reward?
Nigrini, Mark J., and Nathan J. Mueller. “Lessons from an $8 Million Fraud.” Journal of Accountancy. N.p., 01 Aug. 2014. Web. 15 Jan. 2017.
Website: http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2014/aug/fraud-20149862.html