Ray worked for the Union Carbide Corp. for 36 years, retiring in 1993 as Director of Audits.
Her father is the deputy director of audit services for the New York City Administration for Children's Services in Manhattan.
Those steps might include interviewing employees at a company where an auditor suspects fraud, or perhaps conducting partial audits during the year rather than waiting until year-end, said Chuck Landes, director of audit and attest standards at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Though privacy laws make it illegal to use credit information in a criminal case, William Garfinkel, director of audit at the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, said that nothing barred using it to determine government benefits.
Another example, parallel to the current episode, came in 1961, when President John F. Kennedy, alarmed by the growing strength of right-wing groups, "asked the director of audits at the I.R.S. to gather intelligence on organizations receiving tax exemptions," as Rick Perlstein wrote in "Before the Storm," his 2001 history of Barry M. Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign.
The account is subject to scrutiny by the Director of Audit and is published as part of the records of the government and is available to everybody, including the Leader of the Opposition, who is Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.
It also barred James R. Waggoner, the firm's former director of accounting and auditing, from auditing public companies.
Gregory D. Kutz, managing director of forensic audits and special investigations at the accounting office, also testified.
