Virus-Era Financial Reports Ripe for Fraud, Audit Leaders Warn

Among the pandemic’s lingering side effects will almost certainly be financial statement fraud, audit industry leaders warn, calling on management and company directors to be their allies to keep corporate reporting accurate.

“The risk of financial statement fraud at public companies is real, and that risk has only increased during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Julie Bell Lindsay, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Audit Quality. “The strongest fraud deterrence and detection requires extreme vigilance from all the participants in the financial reporting ecosystem.”

The center, along with a consortium of other market players, looked to recent financial fraud ...