> Or can the numbers all add up but there's still fraud?
Yes, of course. Consider that you've set up a separate company and you intend to steal money from your employer. You've got a buddy in accounts payable that you're in cahoots with. You get set up as a vendor, you send invoices to the company, they pay them, and you never deliver anything. The company's numbers add up. They pay vendors for services all the time. Whether the vendors are real, the contracts are legitimate, and the expected services were provided isn't on the account statements.
Wirecard was the other way around. Send invoices to companies that don't exist, and transfer the earnings to a bank account that does not exist either. Don't forget to pay taxes of couse. Get bonus payments and earn nicely on rising stock prices.
Version two of this fraud is you do supply something, but it's either a) something the company doesn't actually use, so you can provide a stand-in, knowing it will be stocked and later destroyed, b) something worthwhile that you've bought and marked up with help, etc.
Right--this is a demonstration of how an audit is more than looking at double-entry accounting statements and "seeing if the numbers add up." That's the point of my post.
Yes, of course. Consider that you've set up a separate company and you intend to steal money from your employer. You've got a buddy in accounts payable that you're in cahoots with. You get set up as a vendor, you send invoices to the company, they pay them, and you never deliver anything. The company's numbers add up. They pay vendors for services all the time. Whether the vendors are real, the contracts are legitimate, and the expected services were provided isn't on the account statements.