Creative accounting - an insight into the nature and extent of manipulating corporate profits

Creative accounting is more widespread than is normally understood. This is confirmed by Ian Griffiths. He asserts, "Every company in the country is fiddling its profits. Every set of published accounts is based on books which have been gently cooked or completely roasted. The figures which are fed twice a year to the investing public have all been changed in order to protect the guilty. It is the biggest con trick since the Trojan horse”. And he goes on to say that any accountant “worth his salt” will confirm that this is no wild assertion. His usage of such phases as ‘cooking the books’, ‘fiddling the accounts’ and ‘corporate con trick’ may suggest something illegal. On the contrary, it is legitimate and is commonly referred to as creative accounting.