In 2002, a wave of accounting scandals broke in the United States. A number of leading companies have admitted to mis-stating their accounts, giving a misleading impression of their status. In public companies, this type of creative accounting can amount to fraud, and a series of investigations have been launched by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In several cases, the sums involved are in the billions of dollars.

Reported accounting scandals in

2000

• Xerox (2000)

2001

• Enron (2001)
  • Jeffrey Skilling, Kenneth Lay, Andrew Fastow

2002

• AOL
• Adelphia
• Bristol-Myers Squibb
• CMS Energy
• Computer Associates
• Duke Energy
• Dynegy
• El Paso Corporation
• Freddie Mac
• Global Crossing
  • Gary Winnick , John Legere , Thomas Casey
• Halliburton
  • Dick Cheney
• Harken Energy
  • Published report 10-9-2002
• HealthSouth
• Homestore.com
• ImClone Systems
  • Sam Waksal , Martha Stewart, John B. Landes , Ronald A. Martell ,
• Kmart
• Lucent Technologies
• Merck & Co.
• Merrill Lynch
• Mirant
• Nicor Energy, LLC
• Peregrine Systems
• Qwest Communications International
• Reliant Energy
• Sunbeam
• Tyco
  • L. Dennis Kozlowski , Mark H. Swartz ,
• Waste Management
• WorldCom
  • Bernard Ebbers

2003

• Parmalat
  • Calisto Tanzi

2005

• AIG

Sorted by Big Five auditor

• Arthur Andersen -- CMS, Cornell, Dynegy, Enron, Global Crossing, Halliburton, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, Merck, Peregrine, Qwest, Sunbeam, Waste Management, WorldCom
  • David Duncan
• Deloitte & Touche -- Adelphia, AES, Cendant , Duke, El Paso, Merrill Lynch, Reliant, Rite Aid
• Ernst & Young -- AOL Time Warner, Dollar General, PNC
• KPMG -- Citigroup, CA, GE, IM Clone, Peregrine, Xerox
• PricewaterhouseCoopers -- Bristol Myers, HPL, JP Morgan Chase, Kmart, Lucent, MicroStrategy, Network Associates, Phar-Mor, Tyco
• Coopers & Lybrand LLP -- Network Associates
• Gutierrez & Co. -- Vivendi
• Grant Thornton -- Parmalat

Outcomes

The Enron scandal has so far resulted in the criminal conviction of the Big Five auditor Arthur Andersen, and that firm has had to divest itself of its non-US partners.

There is a general perception that there are other accountancy scandals waiting to be uncovered, which has contributed to the 2002 stock market downturn.

On July 9, 2002 George W. Bush gave a speech about recent accounting scandals that have been uncovered. In spite of its stern tone, the speech did not focus on establishing new policy, but instead focused on actually enforcing current laws, which include holding CEOs and directors personally responsible for accountancy fraud.

In July, 2002, WorldCom filed for bankruptcy protection, in the largest corporate insolvency ever.

These scandals have reignited the debate over the relative merits of US GAAP, with its rules-based approach to accounting, and International Accounting Standards and UK GAAP, which favour a principles-based approach. The Financial Accounting Standards Board has announced it intends to introduce more principles-based standards. More radical means of accounting reform have been proposed but so far have very little support.

In 2005, after a scandal on insurance and mutual funds the year before, AIG is under investigation for accounting fraud. The company already lost over 45 billion US dollars worth of market capitalisation because of the scandal. This was the fastest decrease since the Worldcom and Enron scandals. Investigations also discovered over a billion US dollars worth of errors in accounting transactions. Future outcome for the company is still pending. See also: Buffett and AIG scandal

See also

• Corporate abuse
• Corporate scandal

External links

• Securities and Exchange Commission website
• Link to Bush speech
• A diagram of the scandals

Further reading

• John R. Emshwiller and Rebecca Smith, 24 Days: How Two Wall Street Journal Reporters Uncovered the Lies that Destroyed Faith in Corporate America or Infectious Greed, HarperInformation, 2003, ISBN 0060520736