Investigation Of Financial Statement Fraud

Fraudulent financial reporting is one form of corporate corruption and may involve the manipulation of the documents used to record accounting transactions, the misrepresentation of accounting events or transactions, or the intentional misapplication of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) (Crumbley, Heitger, and Smith, 2013). Examples of fraudulent schemes befitting of this category abound and usually involve financial statement items that have been misclassified, omitted, overstated, undervalued, or prematurely recognized. One case involving CEO Bill Smith of Moonstay

After reviewing the financial information of the Tech Tennis, USA, there was a concerned due to some unusual changes in the company’s accounts. Financial statements play a crucial part in the determination of the progress of an organization. It assists the relevant personnel to identify whether the company is making profits or making losses. Although unethical, some companies will tend to deliberately misrepresent some of their financial statement information to create a false impression of the company’s success. There are various techniques that organizations utilize to manipulate their financial statements such as overstating their revenues (Bierstaker, Brody, & Pacini, 2006). In addition, some organization will tend to inflate their sales without considering their cash flow amount that the organization has acquired which will be a red flag to investigate. Consequently, financial statements provide vital information that helps both internal and external users to understand the position of the organization. Some companies in an attempt to continue in the market, they end up manipulating their financial statements that create an illusion of the success of the organization.

Unfortunately, all those efforts have not been vindicated because of the following reasons: Accounting did not cause the recent corporate scandals such as Enron and WorldCom. Unreliable financial statements were the results of management decisions, fraudulent or otherwise. To blame management’s misdeeds on fraudulent financial statements casts accountants as the scapegoats and misses the real issue. Reliable financial reports rely to a certain extent on effective internal controls, but effective internal controls rely to a large extent on a reliable management system coupled with strong corporate governance. when management deliberately or even unlawfully manipulates business processes in order to achieve desirable financial goals and present untruthful financial reports to the public, accounting systems are abused and victims rather than perpetrators.

It is important to first gain an understanding of the various types of fraud, in order to aid understanding in regards to the prevention of fraudulent activity. This paper begins with a review of the definition of financial fraud, and identification of the different fraud types. Further, included is an examination of what motivates individuals to commit fraud, including an identification of some of the method in which people commit fraud. A discussion of the importance of the fraud triangle, and how rationalization contributes to fraud is a key area of focus. Finally, there is an examination of some controls that prevent and detect fraudulent behavior, including the value and importance of understanding the nature of fraud for

The study of Gowthorpe and Amat (2005) illustrated two different types of behavior of the preparers of financial statements. To demonstrate the manipulative behavior of preparers of financial statement, the researchers used the accounting regulation in the USA and Spanish economy. The research demonstrated the weaknesses of U.S. standards in relation with a preparer lobby. Major corporations challenge regulators by insistent their interests. Consequently, the regulation attempts to mediate and compromising between the regulator and the preparer of financial statements (p. 61). Unfortunately, the interests of financial statement users are not taken into consideration. Moreover, practices of macro- and micromanipulations do not reflect the financial user’ needs. The main goal of financial statements is to deliver the useful information to investors. However, bargained accounting regulation is unable to fulfil the key objective of financial statements (pp. 62-63). It leads to the conclusion that the accounting at macro- and micro levels is ethically questionable. Business ethics should demonstrate a high quality of the individual. Preparers of financial statements exercise the manipulative behavior through the amoral arguments and no obligation for the unethical actions. The financial misrepresentation destroys the shareholders’ income, economic activity in the country, and the public trust.

Following the several financial scandals of the early 2000s involving the former notorious companies such as Enron and WorldCom corporations, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 emerged. Indeed, SOX required that every publicly traded company CEO and CFO endorse the accuracy of their organizations financial statements prior to the official release. Obviously, the idea behind this decision is certainly a way to ensure the integrity of the upper management which dismisses the existence fraud on the financial statements. However, a discovery of fraudulent information on certified financial statements is subject to civil liabilities and criminal prosecutions.

Many organizations have been in the news over the past few years due to accounting ethical breaches that have affected their customers, employees, and the general public. I searched the Internet to locate a story in the news that depicts an accounting ethical breach. I selected Krispy Kreme. I enjoy their hot donuts and was curious to learn more about how they played with the numbers. For some reason I always want to dig into the trickery behind the manipulation of financial statements.

The video “Cooking the Books” discussed the ZZZZ Best case of fraud, it tells how and why fraud was perpetrated by Barry Minkow and why it was undetected for so long. According to the video, ZZZZ Best was founded by Barry Minkow in 1982; when he was sixteen years old, it started as a carpet cleaning company. But, due to high competition in the industry, low entry barriers, and bad internal control, this young entrepreneur started to have cash flow problems, thus creating a shortage of working capital. As a result of the financial pressure, he started to commit fraud by creating false accounts receivable and sales, false documents (using photocopies of real

Richard Okumoto has the greatest responsibility because he is in charge of the accounting department of the company. He is also legally responsible for the information in case of fraud, although he cannot be personally held responsible for the act. He can lose his job before he has enough time to explain the problem to the members of the board.

Fraud continues to cost American businesses millions of dollars every year. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, or ACFE, prepared a detailed report in 2012 as well as a corresponding infographic to detail the devastating effects of fraud on global businesses. According to the ACFE infographic, the average organization loses five percent of its total revenue to fraud.

There is no such thing as a perfect business. Although many enterprises express the illusion that they internal workings are flawless, the majority of them are being torn apart from within. This can be through many different ways, but all end in a hefty court case, possible bankruptcy or similar punishments which are associated with financial crimes. One such crime is the manipulation and misrepresentation of financial statements of a business, to hide expenses, improve earnings per share (EPS) or to attract new investors. This is known as financial statement fraud or colloquially labelled “cooking the books”. (Grossman St Amour, 2014) These crimes can have a significant impact on the business, as their stock could be driven

TRADITIONAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CAN OFTEN MISLEAD YOU AND THEY CAN TAKE YOU DOWN A DISASTROUS PATH.

Financial statement fraud is any intentional or grossly negligent violation of generally accounting principles (GAAP) that is undisclosed and materially effects any financial statement. Fraud can take many forms, including hiding both bad and god news. Research shows that financial statement fraud us relatively more likely to occur in companies with assets of less than $100 million, with earnings problems, and with loose governance structures (Hopwood, Leiner, & Young, 2011).

[ABSTRACT] from the analysis of accounting Information distortion that is illegal, because the accounting fraud, manifestations and hazards start to analyze the accounting fraud of China's listed companies the motivation to find out the real causes of the accounting fraud, and through drawing and learn from foreign countries in the prevention and treatment of accounting fraud experience, to present my accounting fraud prevention and treatment response.

A company prepares financial statement to provide information about its financial position and performance. This information is in turn used by a wide range of stakeholders (such as investors, banks, customers, suppliers etc) in making economic decisions with respect to respective economic interest in the company. Typically, in terms of ownership by investment in shares of the company, shareholders though own the company but do not manage it. Therefore, the shareholder and other such stakeholders to get comfort in taking sound decision need independent assurance from the auditors that the financial statements reflect true and fair view of the company affairs in all material respects. Hence, in order to enhance the level of