New Frontiers: Training Forensic Accountants Within The Accounting Program

Abstract

Accountants have recently been subject to very unpleasant publicity following the collapse of Enron and other major companies.  There has been a plethora of accounting failures and accounting restatements of falsified earnings, with litigations and prosecutions taking place every day.  As the FASB struggles to tighten the loopholes in accounting, and Congress and the SEC try to build safeguards for corporate governance, one group of accountants has been quietly helping corporations and investors alike in rebuilding confidence in financial statements.  These are the forensic accountants.  The forensic accountant actively looks for fraudulent transactions and misrepresentations.  Such an accountant has a major role to play in this new environment, and universities have the responsibility to train future accountants to adequately meet the demands of the business world.