2002 when arthur andersen was convicted for

2002 when Arthur Andersen was convicted for obstruction of justice for shredding
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documents relating to its audit of Enron. The firm agreed to surrender its licenses, but in
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2005 the United States Supreme Court unanimously reversed the conviction. By then it
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didn’t really matter, because Arthur Andersen had already lost nearly all of its clients.
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Honestly, I hate to even mention my prior association with Arthur Andersen due to that
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scandal. However, when I was at the firm, it had the reputation of supporting the highest
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standard in the accounting industry.
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3. I left Arthur Andersen in 1989 to establish a firm of my own, Elite
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Kai Iona
Forensic Accountant
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Accounting, CPA. We are a six-member firm, offering our clients full-service accounting
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expertise. In addition to audit work, I specialize in forensic accounting. Forensic
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accountants are trained to look beyond the numbers and deal with the business reality
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of the situation. According to research conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud
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Examiners (ACFE), U.S. organizations lose an estimated five percent of annual revenue
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to fraud. Based on the estimated U.S. Gross Domestic Product for 2018 - $20.54 trillion
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– this percentage indicates a staggering estimate of losses around $1.03 trillion among
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organizations, despite increased emphasis on anti-fraud controls and legislation to
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combat fraud. My mission as a fraud examiner is to reduce the incidence of fraud and
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white-collar crime and to assist the client in detection and deterrence.
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4. Lane Hill contacted me on February 24, 2020, to employ my services. I
made a presentation that afternoon at the local Chamber of Commerce seminar entitled
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“Realizing Your Full Potential.” The presentation touched on various business and
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financial practices to increase profitability, including stronger internal controls to prevent
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or deter employee theft. Lane came up to me after the meeting and asked if I would
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undertake a financial investigation and make recommendations for increasing
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profitability for Lane’s business. I learned that Lane Hill and Zoe Caine were partners in
their restaurant, Black Diamond Café. At the time, Lane didn’t mention any suspicion of
fraud or wrongdoing. Lane wanted to know why the café was in the red when customers
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were steady, and it seemed business was good. Lane and Zoe had been in the
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restaurant business for three years.
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5. A 2014 study by economists Tian Luo and Philip B. Stark, which used data
from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, concluded that the highest failure rate in the
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Kai Iona
Forensic Accountant
restaurant industry was during the first year, when approximately 17 percent fail.
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However, it is important to note that nearly 20 percent of all new businesses fail during
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the first two years of being open, and 45 percent in the first five. So, while it is not
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unusual for a restaurant to fail in the first three years, it was a bit surprising to hear
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