Detecting Accounting Fraud Before It's Too Late - (Wiley Finance) by Oriol Amat (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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.

From the Back Cover

A company's financial information is crucial for making most business decisions. Therefore, it is essential that an organization's accounts are reliable and based on accurate information. Detecting Accounting Fraud Before It's Too Late is a comprehensive guide to corporate fraud and manipulation. The book is filled with the facts, insights, and helpful suggestions for understanding and preventing corporate malfeasance before it takes hold of an organization and causes irreparable harm. Written by Oriol Amat--a noted expert on the topic--the book contains an in-depth exploration of the warning signs that indicate accounting fraud is taking place and details the proven techniques for identifying, preventing, and addressing fraud.

Detecting Accounting Fraud Before It's Too Late describes both legal and illegal accounting manipulation practices and offers a thorough examination of the ethical considerations and economic consequences of manipulations that affect shareholders, banks, employees, and others. Filled with real-world case studies from American, European, and Asian companies, the book clearly illustrates and analyzes the nature of accounting manipulation and, in many cases, reveals the underlying motivation.

The book shows how organizations can prevent accounting fraud and explains the role corporate governance plays in mitigating fraudulent practices. Designed as a practical resource, the book contains a unique, evidence-based list of fraud warning signs. The individual warning signs are combined into a fraud index. Investors can use the fraud index as a tool to rank companies by their susceptibility to financial information fraud.

In addition, the book offers a historical perspective on corporate fraud that reaches back in time to explain fraud in Mesopotamia and The Dutch East India Company. The author also puts contemporary scandals under the microscope such as Enron and Lehman Brothers.

This essential guide will benefit auditors investigating accounting fraud, analysts, and managers responsible for preventing fraud within their organizations.

About the Author

ORIOL AMAT is a professor of financial economics and accounting at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain; and dean of the UPF Barcelona School of Management. He is also the director of the master's program in accounting and finance. In addition, Amat is president of the Catalan Accounting Association (ACCID) and was previously a member of the Catalan Parliament and a board member of the National Commission of the Stock Exchange.