Board 8 > Why would an accounting firm commit financial statement fraud?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I know a client that hires the firm would try to commit fraud in order to make more money or to cut down costs, but why would it be the other way around? Why would the audit firm do something whacky with the financial statement of the client?

Lack of independence (see Andersen / Enron)

And perhaps I should caveat my statement because Andersen didn't commit outright fraud... but they also failed act with skepticism and ask the hard questions of Enron because they were afraid of losing their lucrative consulting fees (which exceeded their annual audit fees at Enron by ~3x).

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If the track is tough and the hill is rough, THINKING you can just ain’t enough!