Reference no: EM13778213

Like many AIU graduates, you decided after graduation to go into business for yourself as a private investigator. You own your own private investigation firm, performing criminal defense investigations for criminal defense attorneys. You have conducted numerous criminal investigations, including murder, drug, fraud, theft, and sexual assault. Normally, when you are conducting these investigations, you are looking for defenses to these crimes, but now you have been hired by this company to conduct an unbiased investigation into an allegation of fraud. You always conduct unbiased investigations, and you have conducted more than thirty fraud investigations in your five years since graduating from AIU. You have completed your investigation on allegations against a plant employee of an acquired corporation, Lakes Inc. that is based on the basic information given below. Create a report on the results of your investigation, and present the final results that your investigation has concluded. Remember that this investigation is your first opportunity for this company, so you want to do your absolute best report so that you can get more business from this company. Your report needs to be based upon the facts, and it must support your conclusions with facts and supported research like you were taught at AIU.

The following are the main points of the investigation, including what took place and the findings of the investigation:

• You conducted an investigation at the plant of Lakes, Inc. based on an anonymous tip that the company received on June 12, 2007 that an employee was submitting false expense claims.
• The tip stated that an invoice for the purchase of a computer server was false and that the actual purchase was for a high-definition (HD) flat screen television.
• The company requested that you perform the investigation.
• The investigation took place from August-November 2009.
• The investigation determined that $8,795.60 in false invoices had been submitted for reimbursement through the purchasing department.
• The associate director of purchasing and his administrative assistant were terminated.
• The investigation determined that there was no original invoice on file but only a copy. The purchase was made with a corporate-purchased card issued to Mr. Bob Smith, the associate director of purchasing.
• The vendor, Sterns, was contacted and confirmed that the invoice number on the file copy matched on the invoice they had for the sale of a HD television.
• Lakes, Inc. maintains a physical asset database in which all nondisposable items with a purchase price of $1,000 or more are recorded. Each item is assigned a unique ID number and bar code label, which are used to track the item. The database is maintained by the administrative assistant.
• There was no record of the computer server in the physical assets database, and no ID number had been issued for any similar item in the past 10 months.
• An on-site visit was made to Sterns, an approved vendor since May 2005.
• The manager, Mr. Ted Jones, advised that in the past 6 months, the same individual, Mr. Bob Smith, had made 2 other purchases that he considered odd because he asked that the purchase be held for pickup by either him or his administrative assistant, Ms. Mary Bad.
• Mr. Jones also noted that Ms. Bad had used Mr. Smith's purchase card to make an additional 3 purchases with the same request that they be held for pickup.
• Mr. Jones provided copies of the invoices that showed the purchase of a notebook computer, a digital camera, a digital camcorder, a GPS system, and a home theater system.
• When these invoices were compared with the plant purchasing records, it was found that the files contained only copies as opposed to originals. Each of the file copies matched an original invoice as far as the invoice number, date, and amount, but they were different as far as what was purchased. All other purchases were made with the same purchase card and approved by Mr. Smith.

Please answer the following questions. As you answer each question, you must provide support or evidence that will enhance and empirically prove your answers. Academic criminal justice articles or real life criminal justice findings that are not found in journals or other academic sources must be used in supporting your answers. Please use APA style for all cited sources, including your resource page.

Assignment Details

• You must write a narrative report that takes the facts that are presented and demonstrates a step-by-step conclusion of who you believe is the culprit of the fraud.
• You must present your findings step-by-step in a chronological order of time. Please notice dates and occurrences of financial transactions as you go through the facts.
• You must understand misappropriation of the asset fraudulent disbursement scheme and how it fits in this case.
• You must have concluding results and recommendations of actions toward the criminals of the fraudulent acts.