COSO Releases Latest Fraud Study
May 20, 2010
FEI Summary

On May 20, 2010 COSO announced the release of a new research study, Fraudulent Financial Reporting: 1998-2007, that examines 347 alleged accounting fraud cases identified by a review of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases (AAER's) issued over a ten-year period ending December 31, 2007.

The COSO Fraud Study updates COSO's previous 10-year study of fraud and was led by the same core academic research team as COSO's previous Fraud Study.

COSO's Fraud Study provides an in-depth analysis of the nature, extent and characteristics of accounting frauds occurring throughout the ten years, and provides helpful insights regarding new and ongoing issues needing to be addressed.

COSO is more formally known as The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, and the five sponsoring organizations are the AAA, AICPA, FEI, IIA, and IMA. More COSO info is available on their website, www.coso.org.

Prepared May 21, 2010 by Edith Orenstein, director of Accounting Policy Analysis and Communications, Financial Executives International (FEI). This summary does not represent FEI opinion unless specifically noted above.