Causes, consequences, and deterence of financial statement fraud (original) (raw)

THE DYNAMICS AND CONTROL OF CORPORATE FINANCIAL STATEMENT FRAUD

Subhan and Rika Syahadatina, 2020

This paper offers additional worth insight and knowledge that enhance our understanding of the causes of fraudulent financial statement. These insights are synthesised from contemporary thinking and prior empirical fraud studies. This paper isto give a significant contribution to practitioners in terms of fighting against fraudulent financial statement and academics in terms of developing fraud theory. We acknowledge, imperfect prevention mechanisms, for example, due to lack of adequate information system management, are categorised as a major factor that makes organisations very vulnerable defrauded by their employees. It is true that fraud can be perpetrated by organisational insiders or outsiders. However, the catastrophic threat comes from disgruntle organisational insiders, regardless the level of positions in the company. It is because they are legally authorised to access the company’s systems and know the weaknesses of control systems. In relation to the psychological factors of perpetrators, greed, dignity, and acquisitiveness are highly likely adhered to fraud perpetrators coming from organisational insiders. Such factors arise because a powerful belief that organisation should pay for the perceived inequities. Key words: Fraudulent Financial Statement, Greed, Dignity, Acquisitiveness

Financial Statement Fraud: Insights from the Academic Literature

AUDITING: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 2008

SUMMARY: We summarize relevant academic research findings to contribute to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) project on financial statement fraud and to offer insights and conclusions relevant to academics, standard setters, and practitioners. We discuss the characteristics of firms committing financial statement fraud, as identified in the literature, and research related to the fraud triangle. We then discuss research related to the procedures and abilities of auditors to detect fraud, and how fraud risk assessments impact audit planning and testing. In addition, we discuss several “high risk” areas and other issues as identified by the PCAOB. Finally, we summarize prior findings and offer conclusions and suggestions for areas where future research is needed.

Financial Statement Fraud: Incidents, Methods and Motives

Australian Accounting Review, 2007

This paper studies 14 companies which were subject to an official investigation arising from the publication of fraudulent financial statements. The research found senior management to be responsible for most fraud. Recording false sales was the most common method of financial statement fraud. Meeting external forecasts emerged as the primary motivation. Management discovered most fraud, although the discovery was split between incumbent and new management.

A Framework for Identifying (and Avoiding) Fraudulent Financial Reporting

Accounting Perspectives, 2008

This commentary analyzes the relationship of fraud risk assessments to other risk assessments by auditors. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board notes that this is a problem area of current practice. Effective detection of fraudulent financial reporting requires an integrative accounting/auditing conceptual framework. As a result, this paper is as much about accounting theory as it is about auditing. To simplify the development of such an integrated framework, this paper uses an expanded risk model. This effectively results in a risk perspective on fraudulent financial reporting. There are many potential implications but the major findings are as follows. First, the study identifies the crucial role of benchmarks based on acceptable levels of risk to help differentiate between intentional and unintentional misstatements. Such differentiation is critical to successfully implementing the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 99 and international standards ISA Nos. 240 , 540 , and 700. Second, the paper shows the importance of not allowing the major categories of risks identified here from getting too high. This paper explains the need to set acceptable levels of these risks, either by standard-setters as a matter of broad policy, or by individual practitioners as part of the terms of specific engagements. I propose that a major factor in the concept of "present fairly" be the acceptable levels of accounting risks that are defined here, especially the risks due to intentional forecast errors. Third, this paper clarifies how the fraud risk of SAS No. 99 , and similar international standards, relates to the current audit risk model framework. Keywords Accounting theory; Auditing theory; Fairness of presentation in financial reporting; Fraud risk * Special thanks go to the editor, Efrim Boritz, two anonymous reviewers, and Ulfert Gronewold for constructive comments on earlier drafts of this paper. I also thank my discussant, Niccola Pecchiari, and

Accounting Frauds: A Review of Literature

The business community requires transparent corporate reports to ensure that investment decisions are not based on materially misstated financial statements. This implies that corporate managers, auditors, board of directors, investors and regulatory agencies urgently need to be able to detect and prevent potential earnings frauds. The literature review seeks to improve understanding of the fraudulent financial statement anatomy, its factors, motivations and antecedents-the knowledge of which can improve our detection and prevention ability. The " fraud triangle " is portrayed as an efficient model for understanding antecedents to fraud. Concurring with Zahra, Priem and Rasheed (2005), the paper calls for further research to understand the motivational factors of fraud behaviour as well as adopting forensic accounting techniques to enhance the probability of detecting fraud in a timely, cost effective manner.

Preventing financial statement frauds through better corporate governance

Corporate Ownership & Control

Acting within the agency theory theoretical framework, the paper focuses on the role of the corporate governance as a system to monitor and predict the fraud occurrence and magnitude. Specifically, the study examines the impact of the quality of the corporate governance of the firms, for which a fraud was detected, on the fraud occurrence and magnitude. We posit that fraudulent behaviours, by those who can take advantage of information asymmetry and gain personal benefits from them, can occur when strong agency problems emerge and a weak governance exists. Thus, the financial statement fraud can be seen as the result of high agency problems and high conflicts of interests not solved by the company. Starting from a sample of 101 listed companies, for which a fraud was detected, using a principal component analysis, we develop a corporate governance index, which measures the quality of the governance system of the firms. To test the hypothesis, we run a multinomial logistic regression...

Financial Statement Fraud Risk Mechanisms and Strategies: The Case Studies of Malaysian Commercial Companies

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2014

This research examines the potential means available to company managers, auditors and regulators of preventing, detecting and reacting to financial statement fraud. Research is conducted by means of interviews with company managers, auditors and regulators. The findings are, while management integrity and the development of internal systems to prevent fraudulent reporting can help to reduce the probability of financial statement fraud taking place, the nature of financial statement fraud as a crime in which the company is an instrument and not a victim makes it essential that penalties enforced by regulators are used to deter and react to cases where such frauds are detected.

Factors Affecting Fraud Prevention and Its Implication to the Quality of Financial Statements

Journal of Applied Finance & Accounting

The study aims to determine the effect of internal control, internal audit, risk-based audit, audit committee, and whistleblowing system on fraud prevention and its implications to the quality of financial statements. The sample consisted of 7 companies from 12 populations of chemical sub-sector companies and 5 companies from 10 populations of pharmaceutical sub-sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2018. Data were collected using questionnaires with 154 respondents. The analysis technique using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and processed with Lisrel 8.8. The results indicate that, partially, internal control, internal audit, risk-based audit, and audit committee have a positive and significant effect on fraud prevention, while the whistleblowing system partially has a negative and insignificant effect. However, simultaneously, the direct effect of internal control, internal audit, risk-based audit, audit committee, and whistleblowing system on fraud preven...

Roots of Responsibilities to Financial Statement Fraud Control

Procedia Economics and Finance, 2015

Financial statement fraud cases also occur when weak internal controls exist. Besides these reasons, the research differentiates between the two major types of financial statement fraud. This research discusses the responsibilities of financial statement fraud control by looking at agency theory, stakeholder theory, public interest theory; capital needs theory and communication theory. This discussion is in tandem with the principal investigation of internal control strategies in relation to financial statement fraud control. The output of this paper provides a comprehensive understanding of responsibilities for financial statement fraud control in the context of the above theories and finally contributes recommendations for improvement in financial statement fraud control in public interest entities.