- Equity Funding
Equity Funding Corporation of America was a
Los Angeles -basedU.S. financial conglomerate that marketed a package ofmutual funds andlife insurance to private individuals in the 1960s and 70s. It collapsed in scandal in1973 after ex-employee Ronald Secrist andsecurities analyst Ray Dirks blew the whistle on massiveaccounting fraud , including acomputer system dedicated exclusively to creating and maintaining fictitious insurance policies. Investigation found that from1964 onward, as many as 100 company employees had engaged in organized deception of investors, auditors, reinsurers and regulatory authorities.An important sidelight was the filing of
insider trading charges againstwhistleblower Dirks. The ensuing case of "Raymond L. Dirks v. Securities and Exchange Commission" went all the way to theU.S. Supreme Court where Dirks was finally acquitted. The case has been termed historic in helping to define insider trading, as well as the treatment of whistleblowers, analysts and the press.ee also
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History of information technology auditing References
* [http://www.stocksandnews.com/searchresults.asp?Id=1573&adate=2/6/2004 Ray Dirks and the Equity Funding Scandal, Part I] and [http://www.stocksandnews.com/searchresults.asp?Id=1579&adate=2/13/2004 Part II] at stockandnews.com
* [http://www.thestreet.com/stocks/accounting/789337.html Cracking the Books II: Reliving Equity Funding] at thestreet.comExternal links
*imdb title|id=0074206|title=Billion Dollar Bubble — the Equity Funding scandal retold in the form of a movie starring James Woods in the role of the actuary
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