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5
Financial Statement Fraud
INTRODUCTION
Now that the reader has been introduced to the concepts underpinning
the Red Flag System, we turn to examining its actual application in one of
the highest prole types of fraud: nancial statement fraud, also known
in some circles as accounting fraud.
WHAT IS FINANCIAL STATEMENT FRAUD?
There is a common thread linking the major fraud scandals among pub-
licly traded companies in the United States in the late 1990s and early
2000s: nancial statement fraud. Enron, WorldCom, and Health South
were all brought down by efforts to fraudulently misrepresent the health of
the company by manipulating nancial statements. This had far- reaching
negative consequences—for shareholders, creditors, and the thousands ...