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Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports, Third Edition

Financial Shenanigans:  How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports, Third Edition
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Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports, Third Edition

 
 
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Description

From the “ Sherlock Holmes of Accounting,” the tools you need to stay a step ahead of the crooks

“Howard Schilit is the authority on forensic accounting. Financial Shenanigans is invaluable reading for market participants seeking to identify deceptive behavior in company financial statements.” Julian Robertson, legendary investor and founder, Tiger Management

“A must-read! The authors teach forensic financial statement analysis in an easy-to-digest format with lots of war stories. Guaranteed to help investors in their quest to avoid ticking time bombs in their portfolios.”
Marc A. Siegel, board member, Financial Accounting Standards Board

“This is a timeless guide to better understand how financial malfeasance can be spotted early. Financial Shenanigans teaches all of us fraud-detection-made-easy.”
Jules Kroll, pioneering private investigator and founder of Kroll Associates and K2 Global

“Required reading for every investor who desires to avoid financial losses. This new edition is a classic and better than ever.”
Thornton L. O’glove, author, Quality of Earnings

“If the original Financial Shenanigans was the Bible of detecting accounting frauds, then this latest version is the Talmud of cooked books. Regulators, audit committee members, and business journalists should be required to read this work if they are involved in public companies.”
Boris Feldman, partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Palo Alto

“An incisive and entertaining review of the recipes used by corporations and executives to ‘cook the books.’ It’s a must-read for investors, lawyers, corporate directors, and anyone else interested in the integrity of the accounting and governance process.”
Joseph A. Grundfest, professor of law and business and codirector, Rock Center on Corporate Governance, Stanford Law School

About the Book:

With major financial scandals popping up in greater numbers—and with more inevitably on the way—it has never been more important for you to understand what dishonest companies do to trick investors. Since the early 1990s, Financial Shenanigans has been helping investors unearth deceptive financial reporting at the most critical time— before they suffer major losses.

Now, the third edition broadens its focus to include the newest, most sophisticated techniques companies use to mislead investors.

Referred to as the “Sherlock Holmes of Accounting” by BusinessWeek, Howard Schilit and renowned forensic accounting expert Jeremy Perler take you deeper into the corporate bag of tricks, exposing new levels of accounting gimmickry and arming you with the investigative tools you need to detect:

  • Earnings Manipulation Shenanigans: Learn the latest tricks companies use to exaggerate revenue and earnings.
  • Cash Flow Shenanigans: Discover new techniques devised by management that allow it to manipulate cash flow as easily as earnings.
  • Key Metrics Shenanigans: See how companies use misleading “key”metrics to fool investors about their financial performance.

Financial Shenanigans brings you completely up to date on accounting chicanery in the global markets, shining a light on the most shocking frauds and financial reporting miscreants. This insightful, detailed guide written by recognized experts on the subject provides the knowledge and tools you need to spot even the most subtle signs of financial shenanigans.


Product Details
Author:Howard Schilit
Hardcover:304 pages
Publisher:McGraw-Hill
Publication Date:April 14, 2010
Language:English
ISBN:0071703071
Product Length:6.4 inches
Product Width:1.06 inches
Product Height:9.4 inches
Product Weight:1.35 pounds
Package Length:9.1 inches
Package Width:5.9 inches
Package Height:1.2 inches
Package Weight:1.3 pounds
Average Customer Rating: based on 14 reviews

Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:5.0 ( 14 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 found the following review helpful:


5Essential Tool for any Finance/Accounting Professional  Oct 04, 2010 By Book Worm
As a financial accountant, I have special appreciation for "Financial Shenanigans" by Schilit and Perler. Like the preface mentions, this book truly provides the "post-mortem analysis" it promises. It clearly narrates the most infamous financial reporting failures in history (US, Europe, & Asia), and the lessons such fraudulent mistakes offer those who wish to learn. Not only does it serve as a quick reference for all possible fraudulent methods to date, but also as a review of core financial accounting principles (US GAAP) and basic performance ratio calculations.

In addition, it is intelligently written, and easy to follow and comprehend. More specifically, it also employs humor in a smart, witty manner. It does a great job of drawing in readers who appreciate reading up-to-date, practical accounting/finance material they can apply to their professions (outside of academia). Best of all, it isn't dry, but engaging!

I expect my copy will become worn and dog-eared within a short period of time, as this book has become my most trusted coworker and best companion at the office. I am looking forward to following these two authors and reading more of their upcoming work.

My personal opinion, of course, but perhaps more MBA's and senior executives ought to read this book and educate themselves! We're on to you, C-suite!

Brilliant, useful, and insightful! Well done! 10 out of five stars!

16 of 16 found the following review helpful:


5Great Book, but Important Sections of Second Edition Dropped  Feb 01, 2011 By Erik T. Nelson
I should begin by saying that I completely agree with the previous five star reviews. This is a magnificent book, and the second edition had a great influence on my investing. All serious investors should read this.
I would like to draw attention though, to the changes made since the second edition. The second edition described seven basic shenanigans which, for the most part, manipulated earnings and revenue, as these are the headline numbers that the bulk of investors look at. The third edition covers the same shenanigans, though the sections have been re-written, and the examples have been changed and updated. The third edition adds sections on shenanigans to manipulate cash flow numbers (yes, this can be done) and metrics that investors use frequently. The new sections are worth the upgrade to me, though if you read widely in the area, you won't find much new. Mulford and Comiskey's Creative Cash Flow Reporting, for example, covers the same material as the section on cash flow.
Those who haven't read the second edition should be aware that portions of the second edition have been eliminated. The sections on "Problem Areas" and "Looking Back . . . Looking Forward" are gone, but the topics they deal with have either been absorbed into the rest of the text or can be dropped without great consequence. The section on "Techniques for Detecting Shenanigans" has also been dropped, and I believe that this is unfortunate. While some readers may already be familiar with common-size analysis, for example, many investors don't have formal education in accounting and could use the explanation and examples. It was this chapter of the second edition that promped me to create common-size balance sheets and income statements for all potential investments, and I've found the exercise invaluable, both for detection of possible shenanigans and for general understanding the companies I'm researching.
If you are new to this area of stock analysis, or new to accounting, I would recommend buying both the second and third editions. The second edition should be cheap, as used copies of older editions are not usually in high demand. The third edition gives investors more to look out for, but without a systematic way to apply the techniques, I doubt many will put their new found knowledge to good use.

15 of 16 found the following review helpful:


5Fantastic Book, captures all of the tricks management plays  Aug 27, 2010 By nyg91
One of the best books I have ever read. This book provides you with all the defenses to protect against agressive and fraudulent accounting. Most interesting part was to learn how easily management can manipulate CFFO. It has been traditionally believed that this number is reliable because it is harder to manipulate, in fact analysts don't even check its quality like they do for earnings. Skepticism is a powerful tool.

6 of 6 found the following review helpful:


5Great book, very interesting real life examples!!  Dec 07, 2010 By ghutch
I really enjoyed reading Financial Shenanigans. I am an investor not an accountant but I understand basic financial statements and I found this book extremely valuable if you want to avoid the companies that use aggressive or even fraudulent accounting to hit their numbers. On top of being educational, I really found all the specific examples, and there were dozens and dozens and dozens of them, to be a really interesting read (if financial statements can be interesting?).

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:


5Learn how anything can come out of accounting  Apr 16, 2012 By Marcelo Bahia
An excellent book. The author goes on a step-by-step investigation of a wide array of possible accounting manipulations by fraudulent or ill-intentioned companies. After reading it, you'll learn to be healthily skeptical of quarterly results and conference calls.

For me, an interesting lesson to be taken out of this book is how it's so easy for management to trick investors in a given quarter if they're willing to do so, even if you've read this book before - oh boy, accounting can be so easily manipulated. Some subtle gimmicks cited here could be applied for quarterly earnings-management purposes and get unnoticed if management takes care of "reversing" them in a short period later. The danger, of course, like many examples here show, is when they feel tempted to just carry on with the theatre, with tricks getting compounded over time until we have a bomb to be disposed or get exploded.

And by the way, despite being an accounting-focused book, writing is very casual and flows pleasantly and easily, with even some humorous passages here and there. Definitely don't be afraid to read it even though there's an "accounting" word in the title... this book is definitely recommended!

See all 14 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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