Title: Accounting Scandals in Sweden—A Long Tradition
Abstract: Chapter 17 Accounting Scandals in Sweden—A Long Tradition Gunnar Rimmel, Gunnar RimmelSearch for more papers by this authorKristina Jonäll, Kristina JonällSearch for more papers by this author Gunnar Rimmel, Gunnar RimmelSearch for more papers by this authorKristina Jonäll, Kristina JonällSearch for more papers by this author Book Editor(s):Michael John Jones, Michael John JonesSearch for more papers by this author First published: 02 January 2012 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119208907.ch17 AboutPDFPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShareShare a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Summary This chapter describes four financial scandals at Swedish corporations where Good Accounting Practice was not followed. These scandals—Fermenta, Prosolvia, ABB and Skandia—variously involved outright fraud, misleading disclosures, fuzzy reporting and human greed. In all these cases, top management was heavily involved in the events that led to the loss of investor confidence, investigations and/or prosecutions. In three cases, the companies were led by very powerful, charismatic and trusted leaders—El-Sayed at Fermenta, Barnevik at ABB and Petersson at Skandia—who seemingly were outside the reach of normal accounting controls. If internal control over management had been better, the problems at all four companies might have become known sooner, possibly in time to avoid the catastrophic financial events that followed. Nor was there any evidence of whistle-blowing by the external auditors. It was only in the Fermenta case that an auditor blew the whistle, and he was an internal auditor. In all four cases, the external auditors, as well as management, seemed in some sense to fail in their fiduciary responsibility to protect the companies' resources and reputations and to provide the investment community with reliable financial reporting. Creative Accounting, Fraud and International Accounting Scandals RelatedInformation
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-01-02
Language: en
Type: other
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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