Creative Accounting, Fraud and International Accounting Scandals

Flexibility, exploiting loopholes, or deliberate fraud? Mike Jones provides a thorough and understandable pedagogic framework of explanation based on case studies and informed by research. Drawing on international expertise from colleagues he brings out lessons to be learned from case studies, including the most recent global financial crisis. The central story is based on greed and a belief in not being found out, facilitated by accounting devices of overstated income, omitted expenses, fictitious assets and hidden liabilities. Pauline Weetman, Professor of Accounting, University of Edinburgh Business School As with many things, 'the devil is in the detail'. This is particularly so in the case of creative and fraudulent accounting, and Jones and his contributors provide the necessary detail by a careful selection of instructive cases. They are also clear about the fraudsters' objectives, the regulatory framework and provide the necessary historical context as to how the current 'state of the art' has derived and, because of this, why it may be different across countries. The result is not only a particularly useful but interesting examination of an important subject. Paul Barnes, Professor of Fraud Risk Management and Director of the International Fraud Prevention Research Centre at Nottingham Trent University