Senior management yearns to report positive news and impressive financial results that will please investors and bankers, and drive value higher.

While most companies act ethically and follow prescribed accounting rules, some take advantage of gray areas in the rules or ignore them altogether to misrepresent their financial results.

The major topics covered in this class include:

• Factors that cause people to commit financial statement fraud
• The seven most common ways of "cooking the books"
• Specific corporate scandals that highlight "financial shenanigans"
• Increasing your awareness of possible techniques to detect financial statement irregularities and potential fraud

Field of study: Auditing