Fair Value Accounting Fraud

Essential guidance on the new fair value rules for accounting managers, auditors, and fraud investigators Fair Value accounting is emerging as the next prime opportunity for financial statement fraud. Explaining the many complex applications of fair value accounting in the preparation of financial statements, Fair Value Accounting Fraud offers timely guidance on an up-and-coming issue as U.S. and international accounting rules pertaining to the use of fair value accounting continue to change. You'll find discussion of U.S. GAAP and IFRS rules on fair value accounting issues, highlighting the areas most vulnerable to fraud Explanations of 75 categories of fair value accounting fraud schemes Fraud risk checklist that you can put to immediate use Practical detection techniques useful for auditors, investigators and others who rely on financial statements Expert advice from Gerard Zack, CFE, CPA, author of Fraud and Abuse in Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Prevention and Detection Comparing US accounting standards to International Financial Reporting Standards-thereby making this book useful worldwide- Fair Value Accounting Fraud helps you understand the new rules and develop new auditing and investigative techniques to enable you to detect potential fraud.

Valuable guidance for staying one step ahead of financial statement fraud Financial statement fraud is one of the most costly types of fraud and can have a direct financial impact on businesses and individuals, as well as harm investor confidence in the markets. While publications exist on financial statement fraud and roles and responsibilities within companies, there is a need for a practical guide on the different schemes that are used and detection guidance for these schemes. Financial Statement Fraud: Strategies for Detection and Investigation fills that need. Describes every major and emerging type of financial statement fraud, using real-life cases to illustrate the schemes Explains the underlying accounting principles, citing both U.S. GAAP and IFRS that are violated when fraud is perpetrated Provides numerous ratios, red flags, and other techniques useful in detecting financial statement fraud schemes Accompanying website provides full-text copies of documents filed in connection with the cases that are cited as examples in the book, allowing the reader to explore details of each case further Straightforward and insightful, Financial Statement Fraud provides comprehensive coverage on the different ways financial statement fraud is perpetrated, including those that capitalize on the most recent accounting standards developments, such as fair value issues.

Scandals relating to manipulation and fraud have dominated much of the history of business and the accounting profession in America since the founding. Crooks, corruption, scandals and panics have been regular features of the business landscape ever since, with regulations and the expansion of financial disclosure, auditing, and regulatory agencies following major debacles. The importance of this topic is demonstrated by the major accounting and finance scandals of the 21st century, some of the most destructive in our history, including Enron and the multi-trillion dollar real estate crises. This pair of scandals has an extensive number of companions (if less severe and not as well known). The types of violations, causes, and results are equally valid and continue to be of concern today. This short book reveals the signs that suggest financial corruption in organizations and proposes remedies to contain it and prevent its recurrence. It can be used as a supplementary source in introductory financial accounting courses (elementary and intermediate), accounting- and finance-related MBA courses, and business history; or it can be used as part of forensic accounting and fraud detection for continuing education. In addition, it can be useful for accounting and finance professionals wanting exposure to financial disclosure issues and other accounting risks, along with executives looking to expand their knowledge of accounting fraud and risk areas.

The paper examines accounting practices, institutions' role and the possible ways of defining accounting fraud in pre-modern historical context through the micro-analysis of a Venetian case. The three fraudulent financial statements, investigated in this paper, refer to the years 1781, 1782, and 1783, and regard Geminiano Cozzi's porcelain factory, an enterprise active in Venice in the second half of the eighteenth century. Their preparation was required by a government official (the Inquisitorato alle Arti) that, after the investigation of the statements, issued a report (called “Riflessioni”), emphasizing the reasons of the accounting fraud. In particular, the Inquisitorato highlighted the wrong evaluation of fixed assets at (historical) cost, arguing that it was far from the market (sale) value of such assets. The present paper examines the accounting criteria sought by the government official and fills part of the gap characterizing accounting history about the Italian peninsula.

Detect accounting fraud before it’s too late Accounting fraud is the deliberate manipulation of accounting records in order to make a company's financial performance seem better or worse than it actually is. Accounting scandals often have catastrophic consequences for shareholders and employees. Thus, analysts and auditors must be equipped to detect accounting fraud. This book is a comprehensive guide to detecting accounting fraud for auditors investigating accounting fraud and analysts/managers seeking to prevent it. A wide variety of warning signs are described, as are several techniques for detecting and addressing fraud. Understand the motivations and warning signs behind accounting fraud Get to know how accounting fraud is done and how to detect it Avoid the losses that often come from accounting fraud Benefit from case studies throughout to that help illustrate the author's points It’s unfortunate that managers, auditors, and analysts must be wary of accounting fraud—but this book equips you with the know-how to detect it before it’s too late.

An insider's guide to understanding and eliminating accounting fraud How do these high-profile accounting scandals occur and what could have been done to prevent them. Hidden Financial Risk fills that void by examining methods for off balance sheet accounting, with a particular emphasis on special purpose entities (SPE), the accounting ruse of choice at Enron and other beleaguered companies. J. Edward Ketz identifies the incentives for managers to deceive investors and creditors about financial risk and also shows investors how to protect their investments in a world filled with accounting and auditing frauds. J. Edward Ketz, PhD (State College, PA) is MBA Faculty Director and Associate Professor of Accounting at Penn State's Smeal College of Business. He has been cited in the press nearly 300 times since Enron's bankruptcy, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.. He has a regular column in Accounting Today.

The introduction of a new accounting standard for financial instruments has raised a number of issues related to the application of fair value principles. This paper discusses some of these issues which are generally related to the fact that fair values are not always easily defined or readily available. It concludes that the application of fair value for financial liabilities might present fewer complications if it is matched by similar valuation principles for financial assets. The issue of measurement error is more complicated as it can be related to whether valuations refer to exit value, as postulated by the IASB, or deprival value, which is more closely related to firm-specific valuation. Measurement error is magnified in the income statement and so will be any biases from the application of historical accounting for derivatives. Despite any measurement issues, the problem of institution-specific dimensions of value that looms so large in the case of non-financial enterprises and makes the systematic application of fair value accounting fraud with difficulty there, would seem to be much more manageable for financial institutions because of their familiarity with risk measurement and management techniques for financial instruments.

Fair value accounting (FVA) refers to the practice of updating the valuation of assets or securities on a regular basis, ideally by reference to current prices for similar assets or securities established in the context of a liquid market; historical cost accounting (HCA) instead records the value of an asset as the price at which it was originally purchased. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, conflicting arguments have been made about the contributions of valuation approaches in triggering the crisis. This report investigates and clarifies the relationship between these two accounting approaches and risks to the financial system. The authors examine the risk implications of FVA and HCA in the various situations in which each is used; assess the role that these accounting approaches have played historically in financial crises, including the 2008 financial crisis, the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, and the less developed country debt crisis of the 1970s; and explore insights about systemic risk that can be gleaned from better understanding the accounting approaches. The authors find that FVA was probably not a primary driver of the 2008 crisis. Moreover, they suggest that neither FVA nor HCA is objectively "better" than the other. Instead, both accounting approaches can provide useful information for different contexts when applied rigorously, but when they are implemented poorly or when regulatory oversight is weak, both FVA and HCA can produce misleading information that can increase systemic risk across the financial sector. The authors conclude with a series of recommendations for how FVA and HCA, and the financial information that both methods generate, can be improved to better protect against systemic risk to the banking sector in the future.

Called to Account traces the evolution of the global public accounting profession through a series of scandals leading to voluntary or mandated reforms. Ever entertaining and educational, the book describes some of the most audacious accounting frauds of the last 90 years, and identifies the accounting standards and legislation adopted as a direct consequence of each scandal. While retaining favorite chapters exposing the schemes of "Crazy Eddie" Antar and Barry "the Boy Wonder" Minkow, this fourth edition includes new material describing the accounting problems at Carillion, Wirecard and Luckin Coffee. Students will learn that financial fraud is a global problem, and that accounting reform is heavily influenced by politics. With discussion questions, and a chart mapping each chapter to topics covered in popular auditing textbooks, together with supplemental PowerPoints for instructors, Called to Account is the ideal companion for classes in auditing, fraud examination, advanced accounting, or professional responsibilities.