Financial industry reviewers are supposed to be ethical professional accountants. Consider this news story:
Ernst & Young LLP admitted that dozens of its audit personnel cheated on the ethics portion of the Certified Public Accountant exam and that the firm misled US regulators probing the misconduct.
Almost 50 EY audit employees improperly shared answer keys to the ethics portion of the CPA exam between 2017 and 2021 and hundreds more cheated on continuing professional education courses.
Not only did hundreds of CPAs cheat on their professional education, their accounting firm employer covered for them.
Ersnt and Young isn't the only accounting firm involved in cheating. KPMG did as well. These disturbing events follow decades of erosion in accounting standards.
Nonstandard accounting measures are widespread and give investors the impression that a firm is profitable when it is clearly not. This form of cheating helps inflate stock and corporation values. That helps the greed and leverage boys flip companies for greater profits.
