Larry’s Laws of Larceny- Law 7: The Petty Thief Always Gets Greedy

Larry Beebe, CPA

Most people who steal money start with small amounts. They rationalize by saying that they are only borrowing the money and they intend to pay it back. When they aren’t caught they rationalize that the entity they are stealing from didn’t even miss the money so it is okay to take more. They often think that, after all, they are entitled to the money either because they are underpaid or for other reasons.

In one situation a CPA […]

October 6, 2015 Accounting, Audit, Forensic Accounting Read more...

Bond Beebe Welcomes Leslie Kirsch as Senior Manager of Bond Beebe Forensics

Bond Beebe, a certified public accounting and advisory firm with offices in Bethesda, Maryland and Alexandria, Virginia, is pleased to welcome Leslie Kirsch as Senior Manager for Bond Beebe Forensics. “We are thrilled to have Leslie join our world-class team of anti-fraud professionals,” said David Dorsey, President. “We look forward to continuing to improve our ability to provide our clients with top-notch fraud prevention and investigation services.” Ms. Kirsch will serve the firm’s growing base of clients located in […]

October 1, 2015 Firm News & Events Read more...

Hiring a Payroll Auditing Firm, Question 15: Should we Have a Three or Four Year Cycle to Audit all Employers?

Posting by Larry Beebe, CPA

There is no requirement by the U.S. Department of Labor or any other regulator that all employers be subject to payroll audits over a fixed number of years. If a plan has a small number of employers, auditing each employer within a cycle probably makes sense.

There are good reasons, however, to vary the number of years between payroll audits for a given employer. We will discuss that in our next blog.

For more in this series, […]

October 1, 2015 Payroll Audit Read more...

Larry’s Laws of Larceny- Law 6: You Can’t Always Tell a Phony Document by its Looks

Larry Beebe, CPA

When is a check real and when is it a phony? Sophisticated copying and printing techniques can create fake documents that can fool the experts.

A plan employee, check in hand, goes inside a liquor store to cash his paycheck. A man outside the store offers him $100 to “borrow” his paycheck. Within minutes the crook has a perfect duplicate of the check. On Saturday morning the crooks, armed with phony copies of the checks, attempt to cash […]

September 29, 2015 Accounting, Audit, Forensic Accounting Read more...

Hiring a Payroll Auditing Firm, Question 14: Should Payroll Audits for all Employers be Random or Should They all be “for Cause” Audits?

Posting by Larry Beebe, CPA

Some audits should be selected for cause. Factors such as participant complains, whether the employer is new, whether the employer is terminating a relationship with the plan, and dramatic difference in contribution levels from month to month or over time should determine which employers are targeted for an audit. One “for-cause” audits are selected, the remainder can be selected at random or over a cycle.

Random audits should be conducted when the size of the plan […]

September 24, 2015 Uncategorized Read more...

Larry’s Laws of Larceny- Law 5: Kiting Isn’t a Windy March Pastime

Larry Beebe, CPA

Kiting, or check kiting, is a scheme where a person deposits checks back and forth between banks. The fraudster steals and covers up the theft by continuing to deposit checks back and forth between accounts. The amount of the checks deposited is often so large that the amount stolen appears small in comparison. In one recent case the checks deposited back and forth totaled $114 million to cover a theft of approximately $1.6 million.

To prevent kiting the […]

September 22, 2015 Accounting, Audit, Forensic Accounting Read more...

ERISA Plans: Recovery Possible If Funds Expended?

Ashleigh Hall, CPA

Who’s Involved?

Montanile
Vs.
Board of Trustees (135 S. Ct. 1700)

What Happened?

In 2008, Robert Montanile was in an accident and incurred approximately $120,000 of medical expenses, which were covered by the National Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan (the Plan). Upon receiving a $500,000 settlement for the incident, Montanile paid legal fees but did not reimburse the Plan. The Plan filed a lawsuit to recover its expenditures for the accident, specifically by enforcing a lien provision that is found in its […]

September 19, 2015 Accounting, Benefit Plan Accounting Read more...

Hiring a Payroll Auditing Firm, Question 13: What is the Typical Time Between the Assignment of a Payroll Audit to the Auditor, it’s Performance and Delivery of the Audit Report?

Posting by Larry Beebe, CPA

Most plans assign payroll audits to auditors in batches. The audit firm then groups out-of-town audits based on geographic areas- local audits are assigned based on the availability of audit staff. The plan and audit firm should agree on the time allowed to accomplish each batch assigned.

Once audit field work is completed, the goal of the audit firm should be to deliver reports with no findings within a week. Audits that have field work completed […]

September 17, 2015 Payroll Audit Read more...

Larry’s Laws of Larceny- Law 4: Lapping has Nothing to do With the Daytona 500

Larry Beebe, CPA

Lapping is a fraudulent scheme which allows an individual to steal cash from an organization. It can occur in at least two ways in a multi-employer benefit plan.

One way involves a theft of employer contributions. An employee of the benefit plan steals an incoming employer contribution, converts it to cash, and steals the cash. The thief covers up by crediting the employer’s account with the next employer’s payment. The thief then steals again and covers up in […]

September 15, 2015 Accounting, Audit, Forensic Accounting Read more...

Hiring a Payroll Audit Firm, Question 12: Do you Charge for Travel Time?

Posting by Larry Beebe, CPA

Some payroll audit firms charge low hourly rates, but charge for every hour an auditor spends traveling or doing the audit. Other firms have higher hourly rates, but only charge for time actually doing the audit. When choosing an audit firm, clarify how each firm charges for its time so there is an apples-to-apples comparison.

For more in this series, see:

Question 11: Will we Receive Progress Reports?
Question 10: Do you Change a Flat-Rate Fee […]

September 10, 2015 Payroll Audit Read more...