Sometimes, ethical violations occur that do not make headlines but can have a negative impact on a company. Imagine that you are an accounting associate working for a large, privately held company. One of the responsibilities of your department is to prepare quarterly reports for distribution to investors and to calculate and disperse dividend checks for these investors. One evening, you notice that the recycling bin that the nightly custodial workers empty is overflowing with documents. Upon further inspection, you realize these papers are drafts of the quarterly financial statements and lists of investor names and addresses for mailing checks and statements. You do not think these documents should be seen by anyone outside the accounting department, but the company policy is silent on this issue. You decide to draft an email to the corporate controller explaining the situation and your concerns.

Directions

Write a concise email to the controller explaining the situation. Be sure to follow proper email etiquette.

Specifically, you must address the following:

1. Explain thesituationto the corporate controller.
2. Discuss how theAICPA Code of Conductapplies to this situation.
3. Explain the potentialconsequencesof ignoring the issue.
4. Suggestmodificationsto company policies that could prevent the issue going forward.