There have been many famous accounting scandals in the last few decades, and most of us have heard of some of the major ones such as Enron and Arthur Anderson. America seems to be the biggest playground for up-to-no-good financial wizards, but maybe that’s just because the country is so large. Financial scandals make news headlines because of the vast sums of money involved, and the numbers of people affected. The public also has a huge capacity to devour gossip and so the more outrageous the details the better the story. Some stories even make it from article to book status would you believe! Fact is often so much better than fiction.

In years gone by before computer records, tracing any accounting discrepancies would have involved trawling through paper records – unless the perpetrator destroyed them first that is. These days with sophisticated computer technology and automatic back-ups in every office, fraudsters could not possibly cover their tracks via the office shredders even if they wanted to. Forensic accounting files into the goings-on of suspect businesses can take years to put together, and the resulting court cases go on forever and a day too. Costs incurred can run into the hundreds of thousands if not more with many people’s careers being made or destroyed in the process.

Increased information gathering and storing is great for the investigators, but it also makes it easier for the criminals to access data in order to steal it or falsify the contents. If there was such a thing as a shredder confetti cut computer programme than I guess there are certain individuals out there who would be purchasing advance copies to hide their activities. Let’s just hope no bright spark operating on the dark side decides to invent one… fingers crossed for all of us!