Accounting fraud

More than a dozen years ago, the U.S. experienced a rash of high-profile accounting scandals. Now it’s Japan’s turn.

The Anti-Fraud Collaboration, a joint effort of the Center for Audit Quality, Financial Executives International, the Institute of Internal Auditors and the National Association of Corporate Directors, has released the third in a series of case studies examining how to identify and stop accounting fraud in an organization.

One of the more intriguing questions stemming from the Toshiba Corp. accounting scandal is this: Where was the whistleblower?

Toshiba Corp. issued almost 1 trillion yen ($8 billion) of stocks and bonds when it was inflating earnings statements, leaving the company exposed to possible regulatory fines and investor lawsuits.

Toshiba Corp. President Hisao Tanaka and his two predecessors quit after investigators found that the Japanese conglomerate inflated earnings by at least $1.2 billion since the global financial crisis.

An accountant who helped Bernard Madoff fudge trading records to cover up fraudulent transactions in the biggest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history won’t be going to prison.

The U.K. Financial Reporting Council is investigating former employees of RSA Insurance Group Plc’s Irish unit regarding accounting irregularities in 2012.

Noble Group Ltd. appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP to review how it values some of its assets after criticism of the Asian trading company’s accounting practices.

The American Accounting Association has retracted 25 articles written or co-authored by a former accounting professor who was forced to resign after his university uncovered a “pattern of misconduct.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the offices of a Connecticut accounting firm Tuesday and seized documents in connection with a fraud complaint.

Asia’s largest commodity trader Noble Group Ltd. took on its critics with an open letter defending its accounting methods and valuations of a coal asset.

I’ve worked to identify vendor risk and help companies prevent fraud as a certified fraud examiner for almost 10 years, and it’s given me a unique perspective on how fraud is perpetrated. The fact is, it’s easier for someone to “turn to the dark side” and decide to commit corporate fraud than you may think. Here’s what they could do.

Pope Francis has appointed Libero Milone, the former chairman and CEO of Deloitte & Touche Italy, as the first auditor general of the Vatican, where he is expected to oversee a clean-up of the scandal-scarred Vatican Bank.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against the government technology contractor Computer Sciences Corporation, its former CEO and several finance executives, accusing them of manipulating financial results and concealing significant problems about the company’s largest and most high-profile contract, as well as ignoring basic accounting standards to increase reported profits.

The accountant who signed off on phony audits of Bernard Madoff’s firm for decades became the fourth person tied to the $17.5 billion fraud to avoid prison after aiding prosecutors.

Toshiba Corp. lost $2.8 billion in market value after the industrial and electronics group withdrew its earnings forecast pending an internal probe into improper accounting on infrastructure projects.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has agreed to pay $65 million to settle claims over its audits of the failed investment company MF Global.

Ernst & Young LLP agreed to pay $10 million to settle New York’s lawsuit accusing it of helping Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. hide financial problems in the years leading to its 2008 collapse.

Last year saw a rise in accounting-driven federal class action lawsuits, according to a new report from Big Four firm PwC.

The managing partner of the CPA firm PKF Pacific Hawaii has been charged with 13 felony counts relating to losses of more than $500,000 from his firm.