A Framework for Identifying (and Avoiding) Fraudulent Financial Reporting*

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.     

The influence of auditor narcissism and moral disengagement on risk assessments of a narcissistic client CFO

Global capital markets rely heavily on independent and skeptical auditors as gatekeepers to provide assurance that corporate financial reports are free of material fraud. The rise of narcissism among the ranks of both client and audit professionals challenge this gatekeeper function. In addition, auditor moral disengagement may undermine auditor skepticism, further eroding public confidence in the integrity of financial reporting and the audit process. We conduct a quasi-experiment with 118 auditors from three international audit firms. In a simulated interview with a client CFO, we examine whether auditors underestimate risks of fraudulent financial statements due to the interactive effects of (1) client narcissism (manipulated verbally and nonverbally) and (2) auditor narcissism. We also examine the influence of auditor moral disengagement on client risk assessments. Results indicate that CFO verbal and nonverbal narcissism significantly influenced auditors’ assessment of management-related client risk. Moreover, auditor narcissism was found to interactively influence client risk inferences such that auditors higher in narcissism exhibited narcissistic tolerance (lower risk assessments) when the hypothetical CFO displayed high verbal narcissism. Auditor moral disengagement was negatively associated with client risk assessments. We discuss the implication of these findings on future audit judgment research, audit firm policy and training on maintaining auditor skepticism, and the audit oversight role of standard-setters.     

Perceived importance of red flags across fraud types

The purpose of this study is to examine whether internal auditors, external auditors and economic crime investigators perceive the importance of red flags as significantly different across two fraud types: fraudulent financial reporting and misappropriation of assets, as well as across within-subject categories. A total of 471 useable responses were collected using a web-based survey. The findings indicate that significant differences exist on both single and aggregate mean levels among the participant groups. Internal auditors report a higher perceived importance of the red flags related to detecting misappropriation of assets than of those related to fraudulent financial reporting, whereas the opposite is true for economic crime investigators. For external auditors, only small differences in aggregate means between misappropriation of assets and fraudulent financial reporting were found. As the sensitivity to fraud type may affect professional planning, procedures and techniques with regard to fraud prevention, detection and investigation, the results may have both practical and theoretical implications. Further, the focus on both fraud types adds to prior literature on fraud.     

Chief financial officer demographic characteristics and fraudulent financial reporting in China

We investigate whether management's cognitions, values and perceptions are associated with fraud for 18 863 firm‐years for Chinese listed firms from 2000 to 2014. Demographic characteristics of the chief financial officer (CFO) are used as proxies for management's cognitions, values and perceptions. We find that fraudulent financial reporting is higher when CFOs are younger, male, and have lower education backgrounds. An analysis of inflated earnings, fictitious assets, material omissions and other material misstatements provide similar results, with the exception that CFOs with higher education levels are associated with more inflated earnings.     

Neural network detection of management fraud using published financial data

This paper uses a Artificial Neural Network (AutoNet) to develop a model for detecting management fraud. The study offers an in-depth examination of important publicly available predictors of fraudulent financial statements. We find a model with a high probability of detecting fraudulent financial statements on one sample. The study reinforces the validity and efficiency of AutoNet as a research tool and provides additional empirical evidence regarding the merits of suggested red flags for fraudulent financial statements. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Media image of the CEO and the impact on auditors' perception of financial reporting reliability and client risk assessments

Regulators and legislators have recently adopted new governance reforms in an attempt to encourage more normative behavior by those in charge of organizations. It should not be surprising, therefore, that the image of the CEO projected by the media has become increasingly salient to decision makers. Still, the impact of CEO image on stakeholders' perceptions and subsequent behavior has received little attention by accounting researchers. In response to this void, we examine the relationship between two important environmental cues: CEO's image as presented in the media and earnings consistency. Our interest is the degree to which these variables influence auditors' perception of the ethics of corporate management, as well as their assessments of the risk of fraudulent financial statements. We document that auditor perceptions are influenced by positive media cues as well as negative cues. These results are inconsistent with auditors exercising professional skepticism which implies no reliance on positive cues, especially “managed media cues”. These results suggest that auditors, similar to others, are not immune to positive media cues about the CEO. This study contributes to the research literature examining factors that affect the perceived reliability of financial information by considering the effect of non-financial information—CEO image.     

The role of auditing in the fight against corruption

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how various types of auditing may contribute to fight corruption. While previous literature has primarily addressed auditing's ability to prevent corruption, this paper systematically explores auditing's potential to detect corruption. It argues that financial auditing has excluded corruption from the definition of fraud and instead classified it as ‘non-compliance with laws and regulations’. The main arguments for this exclusion is that corruption leaves no material errors in financial statements and no evidence for the auditor to follow. The paper refutes this, arguing that commercial and political corruption creates misstatements in the financial statements of the corruption giver's organization as well as the corruption receiver's organization. Thus, if auditing is to gain a more prominent role in the fight against corruption, auditing standards must include corruption in the definition of fraud, private and public sector auditors need to cooperate and exchange information, auditing techniques to detect corruption should be employed, and the auditing profession must embrace effective preventive measures such as anti-corruption certifications.     

Detecting accounting fraud in companies reporting under US GAAP through data mining

The accounting fraud detection models developed on financial data prepared under US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in the current literature achieve significantly weaker performance than models based on financial data prepared under different accounting standards. This study contributes to the US GAAP accounting fraud data mining literature through the attainment of higher model performance than that reported in the prior literature. Financial data from the 10-K forms of 320 fraudulent financial statements (80 fraudulent companies) and 1,200 nonfraudulent financial statements (240 nonfraudulent companies) were collected from the US Security and Exchange Commission. The eight most commonly used data mining techniques were applied to develop prediction models. The results were cross-validated on a testing dataset and then compared according to parameters of accuracy, F-measure, and type I and II errors with existing studies from the US, China, Greece, and Taiwan. As a result, the developed predictive models for accounting fraud achieved performance comparable to those achieved by models built on data from other accounting standards. Moreover, the developed models also significantly outperformed (accuracy 10.5%, F-measure 16.1%, type I error 12.2% and type II error 15.2%) existing studies based on US GAAP financial data. Furthermore, this study provides an extensive literature review encompassing recent accounting fraud theory. It enhances the existing US fraud data mining literature with a performance comparison of studies based on other accounting standards.     

Financial Statement Fraud: Some Lessons from US and European Case Studies

This paper studies 14 companies that 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.     

Perceptions of auditor independence: Its perceived effect on the loan and investment decisions of German financial statement users

Recent research in the United States and the United Kingdom investigated the effect of the perceived independece of auditors on the financial decisions of financial statement users. This paper is an extension of that research, reporting the results of a mail survey of two groups of German users of financial statements audited by German auditors. The survey was undertaken to investigate the user' perceptions of auditors' independence for a number of auditor-client relationships and to determine how those perceptions would affect their financial decisions.     

Triangulation of audit evidence in fraud risk assessments

Drawing on the triangulation framework of audit evidence ( and ), we experimentally test for the conditions, if any, under which financial-statement auditors alter their fraud-risk assessments based on whether external evidence provides positive or negative news about underlying business performance. We focus on the condition in which two kinds of management-controlled audit evidence – evidence from the financial statements and evidence from internal data depicting performance of a key business process – is contradicted by external evidence suggesting that a key business objective has not been attained. According to the triangulation framework, such contradictory external evidence should heighten auditors’ skepticism about the veracity of management-controlled evidence and increase their assessment of fraud risk.     

Classification techniques for the identification of falsified financial statements: a comparative analysis

In this study, I develop 10 alternative classification models using logit analysis, discriminant analysis, support vector machines, artificial neural networks, probabilistic neural networks, nearest neighbours, UTADIS and MHDIS for the detection of falsified financial statements. The models are developed using financial and nonfinancial data. The sample includes 398 financial statements, half of which were assigned a qualified audit opinion. I compare these alternatives methods using out‐of‐time and out‐of‐sample tests. The results are used to derive conclusions on the performance of the methods and to investigate the potential of developing models that will assist auditors in identifying fraudulent financial statements. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SEC communications to the independent auditors: An analysis of enforcement actions

All 415 SEC releases issued between the end of 1972 and the end of 1989 were analyzed to clarify the SEC's philosophy of independent auditing and to document the violations of generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS) reported in the releases. Among the findings are 1) the SEC consistently concluded that the primary purpose of an independent audit is to enhance the efficiency of the capital markets and help protect the investing public by providing reasonable assurance concerning the integrity of the financial statements and related disclosures; 2) the SEC attributed many independent audit failures to questionable independent auditor judgement in adhering to professional standards, most often because of insufficient gathering of audit evidence due to over-reliance on management representations; 3) the large majority of cases in which the SEC associated the auditor with fraudulent financial reporting (usually constructive fraud) involved smaller audit firms; 4) the large majority of cases of management fraud in which the auditors were deceived by clients involved large audit firms. In the final section of this paper, we discuss the influence of enforcement releases on independent audit standard setting and possible implications for the audit profession in the future.     

Auditor liability: A comparison of judge and juror verdicts

This research examines differences between judges and jurors in rendering liability judgments in auditor litigation cases. While any number of case contexts would allow us to contrast and compare judges and jurors, we chose one that we believed would also address a second timely issue, auditor reliance or non-reliance upon the work of others. Within the general context of litigation of an alleged audit failure, we manipulated, between-participants, external auditor reliance on the work of others (relied on outsourced work, relied on in-house internal auditors’ work or did not rely). Our results show differences in the liability assessments of judges and jurors. Judges assign more liability to auditors that rely on the work of in-house internal auditors, less liability to auditors that rely on outsourced internal auditors and the least liability to auditors that choose not to rely on the work of internal auditors (but re-perform the work themselves) while jurors assess higher liability regardless of the work done by the auditors. Mediation analyses suggests the differences found in the overall liability assessments of jurors and judges are partially driven by their divergent attitudes towards the public accounting profession with jurors’ unfavorable attitudes leading to them assign liability regardless of the work performed. Further analysis suggests juror insensitivity to our reliance manipulations may reflect a strict liability perspective (consistent with prior work by Charron and Lowe (2008)); while judges consider other factors when making liability assessments.     

Asset Recognition And Probabilistic Judgments

With the issuing of Statement of Accounting Concepts 4 on the definition and recognition of elements of financial statements, research into the possible ramifications of the application of recognition criteria in that statement is timely. Using 60 experienced Australian auditors as subjects, this study provides information on the numerical equivalents of uncertainty expressions such as "beyond any reasonable doubt" and "virtually certain" (as per the asset-recognition criteria of AASB 1020), and "probable" (as per Statement of Accounting Concepts 4). In addition, it compares the decisions made by auditors under the criteria included in AASB 1020 and SAC 4. The results indicate that the regognition criteria in AASB 1020 are a higher test of stringency for the recognition of assets than those adopted in the new SAC 4.     

Mandated successful efforts and auditor choice

This paper presents evidence that petroleum firms whose financial statements were adversely affected by Statement of Accounting Standards No. 19 (SFAS-19) increased the rate at which they changed auditors during the full cost/successful efforts controversy. Firms relatively unaffected by SFAS-19 experienced no such increase in auditor change rates. While some important theoretical and empirical limitationns are encountered, the evidence is generally inconsistent with the accounting irrelevancy view that SFAS-19 had no economic consequences for petroleum firms. Auditor-client disagreement on this accounting standard appears to be an important determinant of the decision to change auditors. However, there is no observed tendency for firms to switch to auditors with whom they agree on petroleum accounting.     

Assessing business risk: The case of Premier Punch, Inc

The recently issued Statement on Auditing Standards No. 109, Understanding the Entity and Its Environment and Assessing the Risks of Material Misstatement, emphasizes the need for auditors to understand the client’s business and environment, particularly the client’s business risk [American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) (2006a), understanding the entity and its environment and assessing the risks of material misstatement, Statement on Auditing Standards No. 109. New York, NY: AICPA]. However, the manner in which auditors obtain such an understanding, especially an auditor’s assessment of a client’s business risk, is often challenging for students because they lack the business experience necessary to perform such an assessment. This case provides students with an opportunity to assess business risk in a realistic context that includes evidence beyond the content of the financial statements. Company information is provided via a webpage (www.premierpunch.com) with content similar to that of an actual investor relations site. Students must evaluate the information presented in the company’s annual report, press releases and other sources, and consider the impact of that information on several facets of business risk. Students also perform an analytical review of the company’s financial statements and synthesize the case information into a professional memo containing their assessment of business risk.     

The effects of disclosure type and audit committee expertise on Chief Audit Executives’ tolerance for financial misstatements

This study involves an experiment where 73 Chief Audit Executives and deputy Chief Audit Executives determine the amount of adjustment required to correct a misstatement. We manipulate the financial reporting location of the misstatement (recognized vs. disclosed) and the level of audit committee expertise (high vs. low). The results indicate that financial reporting location has significant effects on internal auditors’ decisions to correct misstatements. Specifically, internal auditors are more willing to waive disclosed misstatements relative to recognized misstatements. Contrary to expectations, the results do not indicate that increased audit committee expertise and associated increases in audit committee members’ perceived powers cause internal auditors to be less willing to waive misstatements.     

Why computer-mediated communication improves the effectiveness of fraud brainstorming

Current auditing standards require auditors to conduct a fraud brainstorming session aimed at considering ways in which the audit client's financial statements might be fraudulently misstated. Lynch et al. (2009) document that computer-mediated fraud brainstorming is significantly more effective than face-to-face brainstorming for generating relevant fraud risks. In this study, we code and analyze process-level data from the Lynch et al. (2009) study to understand the factors contributing to the greater effectiveness of electronic fraud brainstorming. Specifically, we conduct mediation analysis to discern the degree to which equality of participation and two measures of task focus contribute to greater fraud brainstorming effectiveness when using a computer-mediated communication system compared to traditional face-to-face brainstorming. We also examine participants' perceptions of ease of system use, satisfaction with the process, and satisfaction with the outcome. Overall, the results indicate that the primary reason for the greater effectiveness of electronic fraud brainstorming is the greater degree of task focus as revealed through the length of comments made when using computer-mediated fraud brainstorming. In an absolute sense, participants using electronic brainstorming felt that their brainstorming mode was easy to use and they were satisfied with the process and outcome. The primary contribution of this study is in enhancing our understanding of precisely why computer-mediated fraud brainstorming outperforms face-to-face fraud brainstorming.     

The effects of experience and explicit fraud risk assessment in detecting fraud with analytical procedures

This paper reports the results of an experiment that examined the effects of audit experience and explicit fraud risk assessment instructions on the effectiveness of analytical procedures in detecting financial statement fraud. The results of this study suggest that audit managers are more effective than audit seniors in assessing the risk of fraud with analytical procedures. Additionally, explicit fraud risk assessment instructions resulted in more effective assessments of the presence of fraud. These results have implications for the assignment of auditors to tasks and the structuring of these tasks.