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Cooking the Books

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Submitted By drobert826
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Cooking the Books
ACC 201
Abstract
The key to the article “Cooking the Books” is to cover the business ethics of an accounting manager ordering one of his accountants to falsifying a company’s accounting ledger. The Generally Accepted Accounting Principle of expense recognition was not followed. The accounting manager was attempting to commit fraud for personal gain, he does this by manipulating the books to show higher revenue in order to meet the volume for management bonus. The accounting manager also created a hostile working environment by threating his accountant’s job security if he didn’t comply with his orders. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act will also be explored to see if there was a violation due to the unethical behavior of the company’s management and the inaccuracy of the company’s financial information.
Keywords: Integrity, Ethics, Sarbanes-Oxley, Fraud
Cooking the Books
The problem is that the accounting manager has ordered his employee to falsify the books so that the company can show higher revenue in their current year in order to meet volume for a management bonus. These actions are unethical, fraudulent and may violate the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Basis of violation
Business ethics comes in to play for the mere reason that as soon as the company starts to manipulate the books in order to get a bonus, the company’s trust is lost. If they will do this then what else will they do in order to make themselves look better? The accounting manager openly admitted that the only reason that he wants the 1.2 million dollar order on the present years’ books is because they will get a management bonus. He further incriminates himself when he offers a bonus to the accountant in which he ordered to do the illegal deed.
People won’t gamble in a casino if they think it is “rigged.” Similarly, people won’t play the stock market if they think stock prices are rigged.

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