Accounting irregularities are at the heart of those kinds of frauds that hit financial statements and include misstatement, misclassification as well as misrepresentation. In essence, they involve manipulation of accounting data, description or disclosure in order to distort the true financial picture of the organization in question.

The first two chapters give an overview of the financial reporting environments, the GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) and the basics of accounting irregularities. Regardless of the exact form of accounting irregularities, most perpetrators often play tricks to creating financial illusions in four common directions - selling more, costing less, owning more and owing less as discussed in Chapters 3-6. The seventh chapter considers various ways that perpetrators may use in manipulating the classification and disclosure of financial statements. Chapter 8 introduces other types of accounting irregularities under three scenarios: tax evasion, theft and commercial dispute. The concluding chapter sets out various possible deterrents to accounting irregularities in two dimensions: micro and macro. At the micro-level, deterrents are implemented within the authority of the organization in question, whilst the macro-level deterrents refer to the external environment beyond the controls of any individual organization.

Beyond the number-crunching, this book provides an in-depth practical reference for those professionals who need to understand, prevent and combat against accounting irregularities in financial statements.

Contents: Overview of financial reporting environments
Basics of accounting irregularitites
Selling more
Costing less
Owning more
Owing less
Presenting it better
Other types of accounting irregularities
Deterrents to accounting irregularities
Glossary of Terms
Index.

Author Biography: Benny K.B. Kwok is a well-acknowledged expert in the fields of litigation support, dispute analysis and fraud investigation. He is the author of another authoritative title Forensic Accountancy, published by LexisNexis Butterworths. During the 1980s-90s, he worked in KPMG, PwC, Abbey National Bank and the Audit Commission in the UK. Having founded the forensic department for a major firm in 2001, Benny Kwok now runs an independent accounting practice in Hong Kong and holds numerous academic/professional qualifications and public/official appointments in Hong Kong, the UK and the US.