Jenna Martino, CNBC Associate Producer

When Sandy Smith of Stevenville, Texas, purchased her home, she never dreamed there would be any issue taking out a mortgage with Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, a lending company based in Ocala, Fla. The previous homeowners had used them. This wasn’t Sandy’s first time taking out a mortgage and she thought she knew what she was getting into. She made her payments on time each month, but before she knew it, she started receiving foreclosure notices. She had unknowingly become a victim to a multibillion-dollar scam and was one of more than 500,000 homeowners who fell prey to mortgage mogul Lee Farkas.

Cary Spivak – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

As investigators, attorneys and accountants sift through the aftermath of the $31 million alleged embezzlement at Koss Corp., a question lingers:

Where was Grant Thornton, the national auditing firm that collected more than $625,000 from 2004 through 2009 to audit the books of the small Milwaukee headphone manufacturer?

Compliance Week – Tammy Whitehouse

As Congress debates whether to exempt non-accelerated filers permanently from internal control audits—and that debate may take much longer than many expect—lawmakers might want to ponder the breathtaking fraud at Koss Corp. and its implications for external auditors’ role in preventing and detecting management deception.

Eric Decker – BizTimes.com

How could one corporate executive make more than $30 million in unauthorized transactions over four years without anyone else on the company’s leadership team or its third-party accounting firm being aware of the embezzlements?

That is among the questions law enforcement investigators are asking as they sort through the criminal allegations facing Sujata Sachdeva, former vice president of finance and secretary of Milwaukee-based Koss Corp. Sachdeva’s employment was terminated by the firm in December, and investigators have confiscated more than 22,000 items as evidence, including high-end women’s clothes and bags.

Rich Kirchen – Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee

Sue Sachdeva clearly had gained the confidence and trust of Koss Corp.’s top management and she allegedly used that relationship to commit possibly the nation’s largest corporate embezzlement case of 2009.

The Milwaukee-based stereophone designer and marketer had allowed its longtime vice president of finance to telecommute from Houston in the mid-1990s when she moved there with her physician husband, Ramesh Sachdeva. After relocating back to metro Milwaukee, she worked from her Mequon home two days per week as of late 2007.

Written by Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, CFF

Wisconsin Law Journal

When a company discovers an internal fraud, it’s not uncommon for owners and management to look for a party to blame. After all, someone should have known that a fraud was in-progress, right? Often, the blame is cast in the direction of the auditors.

Written by Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, CFF | 14 August 2007

Wisconsin Law Journal

It’s been five years since the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and for many of us, it seems like it’s been around for a lifetime. While the intent behind the legislation was good, it has been extremely costly, and some wonder if the benefits have justified the high price tag.

Written by Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, CFF

Wisconsin Law Journal

Most attorneys don’t think about the issue of fraud in companies until a client (or their law firm) is hit by employee theft. It’s simply not one of those issues that is taken too seriously unless huge risks are identified or a crime has already been committed. Until then, fraud is just another “issue” that probably isn’t as pressing as other legal and operation matters.

Written by Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, CFF

Wisconsin Law Journal

The idea of performing a “fraud examination” sounds interesting to many. They don’t necessarily want to deal with the numbers that a forensic accountant wades through, but they like the idea of someone sleuthing and digging through records.

Written by Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, CFF

Wisconsin Law Journal

We’ve all heard so much in the news about fraud over the last several years. Not a day goes by that we don’t hear about an executive caught with his hand in the cookie jar, a company that failed to follow proper accounting rules, or a compensation structure that led someone to cheat with the numbers.

In some ways, I think people are becoming immune to fraud. The cases don’t seem as significant as they would have been five years ago. They’re not as shocking as they used to be. It is sad that fraud is becoming more commonplace. And the more we hear about fraud, the more I think companies run the risk of not taking it seriously.