Κατεύθυνση Λογιστική
Library of the Faculty of Economics and of the Faculty of Business Administration

2018-12-18

2018

Ganelis Efstathios

Δημήτριος Μπάλιος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Οικονομικών Επιστημών, ΕΚΠΑ

Η παραποίηση των χρηματοοικονομικών καταστάσεων ως εργαλείο της οικονομικής και λογιστικής απάτης Financial Statement Fraud (F.S.F.)

Greek

The Falcification of Financial Statements as a tool of Financial Statement Fraud (F.S.F.)

"Fraud" is defined as any intentional act or omission that is intended to deceive, causing the victim to suffer consequences and the perpetrator to make a profit. All organizations are subject to the fraud risk. "Huge Scams" have led to the collapse of entire organizations causing massive losses of invested funds and other significant costs. It usually leads to the imprisonment of the people involved and, of course, to the decline of confidence in the capital markets. The published fraudulent behavior by key executives has negatively affected the reputation, brands and image of many organizations around the world. "(ACFE- Association of Certified Fraud Examiners)

Starting with the definition of fraud, this diploma thesis deals with the issue of Economic and Accounting Fraud and the "technical instrument" that helps it to be reproduced and supported. This instrument is called the Financial Statement Fraud (FSF) and is in turn a result of a different ap-proach and implementation of the accounting process and its rules, which is widely known as “Creative Accounting”.
The financial fraud related to accounting and financial statements has always been and continues to be a scourge for the proper functioning of the economy in all its fields. Tentative cases of financial fraud, such as the case of the Bank of Crete in Greece in 1989 (http://www.mixanitouxronou.gr) and Enron in the USA in 2001 (10 Infamous Fraud Cases of the 21st Century, Acfe) have always triggered public interest. This phenomenon is based on the falsification of financial statements and is specific to the modern globalized economy, one of the greatest threats to the smooth operation of the financial system. Both its presence and its deployment cause among the business world, the financial sector and the wider trade society the “lack of trust”.
The occurrence of fraud can be either the result of strategic moves and decisions on the scale of large economic groups, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, or of misguided day-to-day voluntary and unintended practices by small and medium-sized enterprises through their coun-terfeit financial statements. Financial fraud by large organizations usually leads to cheating in-vestors. These people invest their savings and funds in financial products such as shares of a listed company or a derivatives and bonds. Falsified financial statements make companies appearing in financially sound positions and as such are considered to be good investment opportunities. So anyone (a natural or legal person) reading a "well-balanced" balance sheet could be deceived by losing the savings and the funds he has invested because of that particular phenomenon.
Giant companies significantly influence the general indicators of the financial markets and apart from the possible loss of investors' funds, the effects of a potential financial fraud can undermine the general climate of market confidence, causing "investment numbness" and consequently a slowdown in the economies. The phenomenon strikes the economies of all countries without ex-ception, and its diversity is related to the legal-accounting system of each country. This is how it appeared on a large scale in the Greek Economy during the period 2000-2009. The fraud through the falsification of the financial statements was almost universal and was due either to deliberate actions to provide credit and loans, or to the absence of rudimentary accounting attributed to lack of personnel and/or training. The "cooking" in the situations of this period had mainly two char-acteristics. First, the balances of the balance did not correspond - and by contrast - to the real economic status of the company and secondly that major shareholder/partner and/or chairman of the company was the same entity with the company’s treasury.

Social, Political and Economic sciences

Falsification of Financial Statements – Manipulation of Financial Statements – Creative Accounting – Financial Fraud

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https://pergamos.lib.uoa.gr/uoa/dl/object/2837887