It’s hard to be a start-up. To get funding from major venture capitalists with deep pockets requires having a good story. NOTHAM Foods’s story had two parts that the company’s charismatic founder Daniel Certech regularly pitched to investors. The first was about its rapid growth in sales. The second dealt with the scientific advances it was making in the use of plant proteins that could be used to feed the 9 billion people who would inhabit the planet by 2050. However, Jane Ireland, a newly hired accounting employee, noticed that to boost sales the company was systematically buying back its own inventory, expensing the buybacks as marketing costs under the category of Inventory Consumed for Samples and Internal Testing. This practice did not seem right, though she did not know if it was illegal. In the company lunchroom, she remarked to Anne Spinoza, a colleague and a friend who did research on plant proteins, “It’s just a matter of time when there will be consequences. Investors will figure this out when they scrutinize our accounting. They could pull financing and we would not have the cash to keep going. What if they thought they were duped and brought a fraud case against us?” Anne replied, “You know, the yellow pea protein project on which I am working hasn’t yielded any results, but Daniel keeps touting it as a winner.” What should Jane and Anne do?