Essentials of Corporate Fraud (Essentials Series) (Paperback)

by Tracy Coenen (Author)
Key Phrases: fraud survey, fraud prevention efforts, personal red flags, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Best Practices, People Who Commit Fraud (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"…presents an insider's look at corporate fraud." (The Business Journal of Milwaukee , 4/4/08)

Product Description
Full of valuable tips, techniques, illustrative real-world examples, exhibits, and best practices, this handy and concise paperback will help you stay up to date on the newest thinking, strategies, developments, and technologies in corporate fraud. Essentials of Corporate Fraud provides an introductory look at fraud and the kinds of fraud that can occur in various areas of a company.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (March 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047019412X
• ISBN-13: 978-0470194126
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #254,418 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Accountants are not known for their writing talents. This book about corporate fraud could have been better., June 8, 2008

By	Jeff Lippincott "www.Jlippin.com" (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I didn't particularly like this book, but I think it was better than OK. The notes I took while reading it indicate the target audience this book was written for are executives, attorneys, and auditors who need a basic understanding of corporate fraud. Included in this book are some of the causes of corporate fraud and the characteristics of those who commit corporate fraud. In my humble opinion, the material covered between the covers of this book will probably help the target audience better understand corporate fraud if they don't already have some idea of what it is and what to look out for. The book is very basic.

This book is not particularly long. And the margins are sizeable, and the line spacing is probably 2X. But it didn't have to be short. It could have easily been longer and felt more like a real book if lots and lots of real world examples had been interspersed throughout the text. Instead the content included was very dry and kind of boring.

Maybe I am being overly harsh by saying this book was boring. This may be because I am a former Big 8 CPA and an attorney who worked for one of the co-lead plaintiff law firms in the Tyco case that settled for $3 billion. (By the way, the Tyco case is mentioned in this book.) As a result of my training and work experience I am fairly well versed on securities fraud and understand the root causes of fraud and the most effective fraud prevention techniques. So there wasn't anything new for me in this book.

I would have liked this book better if the author's writing style had been tighter. Why did each of the chapters have both an introduction and summary? There was no need. Why were there so many footnotes? There was no need to spend time on surveys. Since the author is a CPA and certified as a forensic accountant, she could have made those surveys her own and presented the information from those surveys in a transparent way. Unfortunately, she didn't choose to do this.

I also would have liked the book better if the author had not cited so many stats and figures. I doubt the typical reader wanted to hear about all those numbers, and I know I didn't. The author could have cut to the chase for the reader and just stated the facts about fraud. But she didn't do it as succinctly as she could have. I think there should have been some in depth coverage of Internal Controls. And there weren't. But there was some coverage of Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) in the Fraud Prevention chapter.

All in all, I found this book to be dry and shallow. It just wasn't much fun to read. If it had included marvelous stories that enlightened and entertained, then things would have been different. 3.5 stars!

PS. The author has provided Search Inside material to Amazon for this book. Please examine the Table of Contents included with the Search Inside material to see what is actually covered in this book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but a very basic introduction to fraud, March 23, 2008

By	Michael K. Goode (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have many great things to say about Tracy Coenen, who is a blogger, author, and above all, a forensic accountant. I love her blog and I find her to be witty and intelligent. As a short seller I am also something of a fraud connoisseur, so I appreciate what she does. I eagerly anticipated her first book, Essentials of Corporate Fraud. She was kind enough to let me review before it was published, for which I thank her.

To describe my overall impression of the book I find that I must resort to analogies. The book is like Michael Jordan scoring 18 points or like me only making a 20% return on a stock I have sold short. It is good, and a worthy read, but it is not great. I had expected better. However, I did find the book to be a worthy primer on fraud. There are of course a couple reasons that the book did not live up to my expectations, neither really Tracy's fault: the book appears to be geared towards management types and it is an introductory book.

While being president of a small company, I am decidedly not a management-type; in fact, I would say that my IQ is about 2 standard deviations higher than the IQ of most managers (or at least people who read management books). The other problem is that this book is an introductory book. To someone who deals with messing up financial statements on a weekly basis (as bookkeeper of my company) and analyzing them on a daily basis (as a short seller), I am already familiar with many ways to defraud.

Despite not being wowed by the book, I found it to be a solid introduction to fraud. It was easily readable, not repetitive (unlike most books geared towards management), and it got me thinking. This book made me reconsider certain ways that my small company operated. Since reading it I have made changes to reduce the risk of fraud. For a book such as this, the best complement is to say that it was useful, and this book was a useful read for me.

While this book would be useful to many, it is decidedly not useful (nor does it pretend to be) to investors who only care about financial statement fraud. If you are a CPA, manager, or business owner who is not an experienced fraud fighter, this seems to be a good place to start, so you should buy the book.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This should be required reading..., March 25, 2008

By	David Bleser (Orlando, FL.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

for all current and future business executives. In todays business world it is imperative that you understand the basic the fundamentals of fraud in order to succeed. I think the most effective parts of the book are the real life examples she uses to explain her points. Unlike other authors who try to intimidate their readers by showing their knowledge, Tracey tries to educate her audience. This is accomplished by her no nonsense, straight to the point writing style. She doesn't waste the readers time even when it comes to explaining the good, the bad and the ugly of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. For those who don't deal with fraud on a daily basis this book is a must for your professional library.