What happens if an accountant is unethical?

Once an unethical accountant is caught and tried, he or she will be punished. Although it depends on the specific circumstances surrounding the case, this can result to being sentenced to prison, fines, withdrawal of license and other legal punishments to the accountants found guilty.

What is unethical behavior in accounting?

Unethical accounting occurs when businesses bend accounting rules or falsify their financial statements to present a more favorable picture than actually exists. For example, a business may intentionally list higher assets but hide debt or other liabilities, perhaps to qualify for a loan or to sell a business.

Where can I find the biggest recent accounting scandals in UK?

To find the biggest recent accounting scandals in UK, we first turned to AccaGlobal and SFO for suggestions. SFO or the Serious Fraud Office is the UK government’s organization responsible for putting most of the criminals from the list behind bars.

What drives individuals to the edge of accounting scandals?

The desire to have it all, to possess enormous wealth or claim power was what drove individuals or groups over the edge. The UK is not a lone case. The USA also shared similar experiences described in our article 10 biggest recent accounting scandals in America. The main criteria in creating our list was the size of the penalty received.

Is the UK ushering in a new golden era of accounting scandals?

This article was first published in the March 2017 UK edition of Accounting and Business magazine. The UK is ushering in a new golden era of accounting and corporate scandals with three stand-out cases headlining.

Why is it important to learn from the Big Four accounting scandals?

As these scandals have progressed, more attention has been placed on the accountancy industry as a whole – not just the Big Four. As such, it’s important to learn from the mistakes of others and turn a critical eye to one’s own business.