Garbage In / Garbage Out: A Critique of Fraudulent Financial Reporting: 1987–1997 (the COSO Report) and The SEC Accounting Regulatory Process

Abstract

This empirical paper was aimed at exploring and analyzing the earnings management practices which is often refers to as “Figure Massaging”. The aim of this study is to gather further evidences as to whether these practices constituted an act of misconduct or fraud while taking into consideration the modern business environment's challenges. The analysis provided us with an appropriate evidence that on average, the listed alleged fraud firms in Malaysia had aggressively managed their reported earnings prior to the alleged fraud year and continue to smoothen their earnings subsequent to alleged fraud year through both accruals and real earnings management.