An Empire Built on a Lie – the Peregrine Fraud : A Case Study on Confirmations as Audit Evidence

This study examines the real world case of the Peregrine fraud. In this fraud, the CEO Russell Wasendorf, Sr. duped the auditors and the public for years. Wasendorf was able to carry out a fraud using an unsophisticated scheme involving falsified bank statements and falsified audit evidence. Only when an electronic confirmation services was used by the auditors did the fraud unravel. This case provides interesting discussion points for an auditing, fraud detection and deterrence, forensic accounting or ethics class. Students typically need one to two hours of time outside of class to complete the case and instructors should budget approximately one to one and a half hours of class time to discuss the case after the students have completed it