In a recent survey conducted by Grant Thornton, 688 chief financial officers and senior comptrollers weighed in on financial statement fraud. Here is what they said: 79% of those surveyed agreed that CFOs could intentionally misstate a company's financial statement. I do not beleive this is a surprise to anyone. CFOs and CFO Consultants have a great deal of authority when it comes to their company's financial statements, and they are usually smart enough to know how to the financial statements if they choose to be dishonest and unethical.

But this may suprise most readers: Of those surveyed, they were asked if it is possible for auditors to detect all corporate fraud.  An overwhelming 85% said no - auditors would not be able to find all areas of fraud in a business. If auditors cannot find the fraud, then think of the millions of dollars being spent on Sarbanes Oxley compliance audits that, according to senior finance executives, does not address all of the potentials areas of fraud.So, even if a company is SARBOX compliant, we still cannot be assured that the financial statements are free of fraud.

SOURCE:  USA TODAY