In the year 1998, a company that public-traded waste, which was based in Houston, falsified some records. People currently refer to this scandal as the Waste Management scandal, where participants led by Dean L. Buntrock and Arthur Anderson Company faked earnings reported to be $1.7 billion. The perpetrators achieved it by giving false information about the time their property, plant and equipment depreciated ("Accounting-degree", 2019) . They raised the deprecation time of their assets but were later discovered when a member of management reviewed the records, revealing the truth.
Accounting fraud has spread over many institutions in this current age. The greed and short cut to get wealth among accounting and management professionals is the driving factor to perpetrate fraud in business. This makes people to commit the most dishonest acts to garner more wealth. Many people develop new methods each dawn on the most effective styles of faking records in attempts to gain money unrightfully. In 2019, there are over 1.7 million accounting-related fraud cases and close to half these cases became known after customer complaints ("Accounting-degree", 2019) . The spread of fraud is clear from these statistics because 1.7 million cases per year make it more than 4500 cases per day.
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Red flags are the indications or sign that something if not worth trusting just from the look of it such as accounting records. For the case of accounting fraud, red flag warnings may include; overstated invoice, missing crucial documents, sudden inventory shrinkage, and multiple payment without proper approval. Fake invoices, excess adjusting entries, frequent debts, discrepancy in financial statements and excessive complaints from customers. Sudden change of lifestyle is another evidence of fraud. The net worth of an accountant should not surpass some amount of money, and when a person lives a life more expensive than that, it should be an indicator he or she could be participating in fraud ("Corporatefinanceinstitute", 2017) . Another fraud red flag is the unwillingness of a person to share duties. The reluctance often results from fear of being discovered and exposed.
Every professional field has specific ethical principles that help govern the people there to maintain proper working conduct. In accounting, ethics have a significant role to play, especially when it comes to the handling of funds (Gartenstein, 2017) . Being a role model where one handles all the funds within a firm or organization is an indication of trust, accountants should stick to the ethics governing this profession to be successful.
References
" Accounting-degree". (2019). The 10 worst corporate accounting scandals of all time. Retrieved from Accounting Degree Review: https://www.accounting-degree.org/scandals/
"Corporatefinanceinstitute". (2017). Fraud red flags. Retrieved from Corporate finance institute: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/fraud-red-flags/
Gartenstein, D. (2017). Importance of Ethics in Accounting & Financial Decision Making. Retrieved from Az central.
