Audit assurance is incredibly valuable as it$,$ as implied, assures the accuracy of an audit. It also assures the audit is within regulations, prevents fraud, and can build trust between a company and its stakeholders.

The auditing scandal I chose to research was the Waste Management scandal. The company had reported a $$1\mathrm{.}7-$billion restatement of prior$-$year earnings in $1998,$ an overstatement of earnings across the span of $5$ years. The SEC complaint was filed in March $2002$ less than after the Enron scandal. Enron had opened the eyes of the SEC and they started paying more attention to these types of scandals, SEC lawyers stated, "Corporate executives under fire for improper accounting can no longer figure they'll pay a financial penalty and walk away without admitting wrongdoing." $($Daniels$,2002)$ The defendants in this case were the company's former CEO and founder Dean L$.$ Buntrock and other former executives found guilty as well as their auditor Arthur Anderson who was fined over $$7$ million.

After this case, the SEC also went after companies with the same auditor$/$auditing company as Waste Management, "Lawsuits with similar penalties are pending against ex$-$executives of Sunbeam Corp. $($a former Andersen client$)$ and Cendant Corp., $($whose auditor was Ernst & Young LLP$),$ both of which suffered accounting$-$related meltdowns in the $1990$s$."($U$.$S$.$ Securities and Exchange Commission, $2005)$

This scandal, after the Enron scandal, further exposed how common fraud is in auditing and led to more investigations into auditors or companies that failed to detect fraud or committed fraud themselves. The case with this company led to stricter auditing procedures and policies and companies started to get held at a higher accountability for their actions. Preventing fraud and detecting fraud fast protects companies and investors alike from the effects of fraud, and it increases investor confidence in the company. In responding to your peers, comment on the posts of two different peers. Comment on whether you share their viewpoints on the course content. Why or why not? Do you share any peer interests?