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COOPER, C. Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008, ISBN: 978-0-470-12429-1, 367 pages, $27.95)
Cynthia Cooper, one of Time Magazine's 2002 Persons of the Year (Lacayo and Ripley 2002), tells the personal story of her experience as a corporate whistleblower at WorldCom. Her actions resulted in the exposure of significant accounting fraud, which brought about the bankruptcy of WorldCom in 2002, the largest such bankruptcy in the U.S. to date. This memoir, published in 2008, employs hindsight to explain how the accounting fraud developed and how Cynthia Cooper, head of Internal Audit, eventually discovered and revealed it. Several aspects of this book are relevant to accounting information systems (AIS) students, practitioners and faculty, and scholars.
Relevance to Students and Faculty: Career Development, Fraud, and Ethics
I recommend mis book to AIS students because Cyntiiia Cooper's career path mirrors that of many traditional accounting students. Thus, they should be able to identify with her background and early experiences. She earned her undergraduate and graduate accounting degrees at large state universities, drawn to the field by its black-and-white nature. Her first job, with one of the then Big 8 firms, required her to move from her small hometown in Mississippi to Atlanta. Shortly afterward, a victim of layoffs, she moved back to her hometown to work for another Big 8 firm. Like many accountants who initially work in CPA firms, she eventually took a job in Internal Audit with a client, LLDS, the predecessor firm of WorldCom, eventually rising to a vice-president position.
First, accounting students will relate to Ms. Cooper's early goals and experiences and should realize that even the best-laid career plans sometimes are subject to events beyond their control. Faculty can use this case to teach students about recovering from job loss, making good career decisions, and perseverance.
Second, this story will help accounting students understand the forces that drive individuals to commit fraud. Students with limited professional experience may not be aware that even when public companies employ educated and experienced individuals, fraud may occur. Students may expect that such companies have sufficient internal controls to prevent fraud. However, the WorldCom case demonstrates that a small group of people (in this case, fewer...