The Fraud Minimizer
Controller who discovered financial irregularities that may indicate fraud but is minimizing them to protect a pending deal.
22 min
Duration
About this persona
Derek White is a technically excellent controller who has spent his career being the person who finds the problems. This time, he found one he does not want to report. There is a $2.3M discrepancy in the revenue recognition on the flagship SaaS product -- timing irregularities that, in a deal context, look a lot like channel stuffing. The acquisition closes in six weeks. Derek has told himself it is probably a process issue. He has not escalated it. Convincing Derek to do the right thing means navigating past his rationalizations, his fear, and his genuine uncertainty about what he actually found.
Scenario
You are a senior Finance colleague or peer executive — someone Derek trusts enough to bring this to. He has confided that he found irregularities in the revenue data and described them to you in technical terms that stop just short of naming what they are. You believe he needs to escalate before the acquisition closes in six weeks. He is resisting. You have 30 minutes before his next meeting.
Skills tested
- professional ethics
- escalation
- whistleblower protection
- evidence-based persuasion
- managing someone in denial
What you'll practice
- How to hold an ethical line without triggering a defensive shutdown
- The difference between confronting someone and helping them see clearly
- What whistleblower protection actually covers and how to explain it
- How to stay in the conversation when someone is rationalizing their way out of a hard choice
Personality traits
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