LMU Wins First Place at Internal Audit Competition
Three Master of Science in Accounting students from Loyola Marymount University won first place at the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Los Angeles Chapter Internal Audit Case Study Competition held at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Naomi Domkam, Christopher Kilkuts and Sarah Neel competed in the finals against teams from USC, Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Los Angeles for the $1,500 prize. Also attending the competition to support the LMU team were Faculty Advisor Mahmoud Nourayi and Professors Larry Kalbers and Michael Moore.
“It was truly exhilarating!” said Nourayi. “The presentations were at the end of a long day and nothing could have energized me more than the LMU team did with their winning presentation. I’m so proud of them.”
The competition brought together the best and brightest accounting and auditing students in the Los Angeles area to analyze and present a “real world” case that explores potential material fraud at a fictitious public company. The students based their presentations on the Carolina Wilderness Outfitters Case Study, which was created by the Center for Audit Quality, Financial Executives International, the Institute of Internal Auditors and the National Association of Corporate Directors.
The case study was released earlier this year to raise awareness of environments in which financial reporting fraud might flourish. By describing a potential material fraud in a fictional company, the case study serves as a catalyst for an interactive discussion about what audit committees, financial executives, and internal and external auditors could do to mitigate the risk of fraud.