Preview

Parmalat

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
314 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Parmalat
Parmalat accounting scandal

Which factors were relevant in the Parmalat scandal? Describe the causes and consequences of the scandal.

Parmalat scandal is one of biggest fraud in the world, for years the company can eluded responsibilities with financial analysts and investors but was in December 2003 when Parmalat went bankrupt. In this summary it can appreciate the most significant events:

In 1990, Parmalat started buying milk producers around the world, in order to hide a huge debt. The company began to issue bonds to generate cash, also conducted fraudulent accounting practices in the following years.

In December 2003, Parmalat failed to pay a bond for $ 150 million. This event alarmed the market. Following this event was to initiate an investigation in order to see what was going on Parmalat.

This essay will focus on evaluating a number of articles mentioned in the references, in order to specify what were the causes and major consequences in this known fraud.

First of all, the accounting point of view, this fraud occurs by the necessity of the owners and managers of company to show the world that his company was profitable and was still totally being a company with profits. Different types of accounting fraud are made in the company recorded assets (purchases of milk producers) in order to show that assets were much greater than its liabilities. In this way the company showed solid in the financial statements.

Then this paper has mentioned consequences that brought over 9 years of trials. In December 2003, the bondholders learn that funds for more than $ 4 billion in the Bank of America are non-existent. The bank said that the transfer document is a forgery. Accounting firms are stained with the word fraud. It is found that the real debt of the company was 10 times more than that the company had registered. These are the main events in a series of that genre consequences this giant fraud.
.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Financial stability of any corporation as well as our country is threatened by fraud. This article shows…

    • 502 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Professional auditing standards discuss the three key “conditions” that are typically present when a financial fraud occurs and identify a lengthy list of “fraud risk factors.” Briefly explain the difference between a fraud “condition” and a “fraud risk factors,” and provide examples of each. What fraud conditions and fraud risk factors were apparently present in the Madoff case?…

    • 1261 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Acct 574 Case Study 1

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Parmalat situation started out as a fairly standard – although sizeable –accounting fraud. Not even the best auditors could prepare for what was to come from this company. The Parmalat group, a world leader in the dairy food business, collapsed and entered bankruptcy protection in December 2003 after acknowledging massive holes in its financial statements. This happened when billions of euros seem to have gone missing from the company’s accounts. This dramatic collapse has led to the questioning of the soundness of accounting and financial reporting standards as well as of the Italian corporate governance system. Parmalat, which is headquartered in the central Italian city of Parma, was, like most Italian firms, launched as a family business. Under the direction of Calisto Tanzi, the capofamiglia, he began expanding the business shortly after his father’s death in 1961, transforming it from a small sausage and cheese shop into an international food and beverage concern. In a world where your network is your net worth, he formed close relationships with the Christian Democrats, who governed Italy throughout the postwar period. Today Parmalat is a leading producer of such items as pasteurized milk, cheese, yogurt, cookies, juice and iced tea, most of which are sold under a variety of names in different countries. Well-known names in North America include Archway and Mother’s cookies, Olivina margarine, Black Diamond and Balderson’s cheeses, and Astro yogurt. After such a description one may think that the company is very successful but this was only the beginning.…

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning years of the new century a series of huge corporate frauds predominated the business sections and front pages of dominant newspapers, shaking public confidence in the integrity of corporate America. Those scandals also raise serious questions about the integrity, acuity and prudence of business leaders and accountants who structure and document business transactions, approve required financial disclosures, and, in the case of accountants, certify the accuracy of required reports (Enrione, Mazza, & Zerboni, 2006).…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    JPMorgan Chase is one of the oldest and most respected banks in the United States. However, during the summer of 2012 Chase announced trading losses and bad investment decisions that resulted in a loss of approximately $5.8 billion. Not only did they report this substantial loss they admitted to falsifying their first quarter reports, were they where attempting to conceal the massive loss. Three months prior to this event JPMorgan Chase was viewed as the top American bank. The first question to be discussed in this paper will be what actions can Administrative Agencies such the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and…

    • 1667 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Corporate Scandals also known as Accounting Scandals are business scandals that originate from the misstatement of financial reporting by the executives of public companies who are trusted to run these organizations. These misrepresentations happen through overstating revenues, understating expenses, Overstating assets or understating liabilities, use of fictitious and fraudulent transactions and direct falsification of financial statements to give a misleading impression of the companies' financial status. These misrepresentations are sometimes done with the cooperation of officials in other organizations or affiliates.…

    • 3268 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Chris Uba (2009), [Online] Fraudulent Accounting Practice, Businessworld, Available from: http://businessworldng.com/web/articles/940/1/Fraudulent-Accounting-Practice/Page1.html [Accessed 20 April 2010]…

    • 1788 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Waste Management fraud

    • 509 Words
    • 2 Pages

    What was the relationship between management and the auditors? Why didn’t the auditors prevent the fraud?…

    • 509 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Week 5 Article Review

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Fraud is a real threat to the financial stability of a corporation and even the country. The legal issues presented in the article show how damaging fraud truly is. Of the over 1,200 companies that filed for bankruptcy in the study, 77.8% had some sort of fraud (Nogler & Inwon, 2011). These numbers show that…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Accounting fraud is defined as “the intentional misrepresentation or alteration of accounting records regarding sales, revenues and expenses or other factors for a profit motive” (businessdictionary.com, n.d). All companies are susceptible to fraud because their Accounting systems are managed by people, and as I mentioned above, we are fallen creatures with the susceptibility to fail. Examples of accounting fraud are: “merging short and long term debt into one amount to improve the perceived liquidity, failing to disclose risky investments, over recording sales revenue, under…

    • 1175 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Internal Fraud Case Study

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This case is about the $4 million embezzlement fraud by an employee of a magazine publisher, and how the fraud was discovered. The type of fraud discovered was a billing scheme that was found on accident. A billing scheme is, “Any scheme in which a person causes his employer to issue a payment by submitting invoices for fictitious goods or services, inflated invoices or invoices for personal purchases.” 1 In this case, it just so happened that the new chief internal auditor decided to stop by the accounts payable department to collect a series of recently submitted invoices so that he could meet with the vice president to understand how the accounting codes work. In doing so, they found that a number of invoices had been forged. According to the 2010 Global Fraud Studies, “11% of the time, victim organizations either had to stumble onto the fraud or be notified of it by a third party in order to detect it.” 2 With coincidence one, the investigation revealed that the forgeries were coming from the painting operations in its facilities department, in which was overseen by Albert Miano. Miano started his scheme by creating false invoices for the jobs done by painters. He would not reinvoice exactly the same work done during a week, but he would make it look similar to where no one would ever become suspicious. The opportunity for Miano to commit fraud came into play when he was allowed to go and collect the approved invoices and insert his own replicated fraudulent invoices as approved. He also was the one who transported the invoices and collected…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Healthsouth Fraud

    • 3596 Words
    • 15 Pages

    Richard Scrushy founded HealthSouth, formerly known as Amcare, Inc., in 1984 in Alabama. HealthSouth is a provider of medical rehabilitation services, as well as outpatient surgery and occupational medical services. The company experienced rapid financial growth and numerous mergers and acquisitions in the mid-1990s, which continued to escalate until the fraudulent activity surfaced in 2002. It was at this time that the Enron and WorldCom scandals were discovered and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was created. Pressure to meet Wall Street expectations pushed Scrushy and other senior management to “cook the books”. Income was artificially inflated, numbers were manipulated, and false accounts were created. Numerous red flags occurred but were not investigated such as: disproportionate analytical ratios, exponential earnings growth, letters of concern sent to the auditors, and consistently meeting market expectations. Collusion, lies, employee unawareness, disregard for red flags, and hiring CFO’s from the auditing firm helped ensure the fraud remained undetected. Auditors failed to follow their legal duties and lacked professional scepticism in the process. When the scheme began to unravel, HealthSouth was faced with a financial crisis. An investigation took place and PwC was hired for audit and reformation. Alvarez and Marsals, a restructuring firm, was crucial to HealthSouth’s continued existence. Charges were made, jobs were lost, and many legal battles arose from…

    • 3596 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    References: Alessandra Galloni in Milan, Carrick Mollenkamp in Atlanta and Darren McDermott in, Hong Kong. (2003, Dec 29). A global journal report: Scandal at parmalat broadens; staff may have destroyed files. Wall Street Journal Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/398854445?accountid=7084…

    • 1767 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Accounting, Fraud

    • 2038 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Madura, Jeff. What Every Investor Needs to Know About Accounting Fraud. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 1-156…

    • 2038 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Parmalat Case Study

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages

    1. How was it possible for Parmalat managers to “cook the books” and hide it for so long?…

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays