thesis about ethics in accounting

Ethics in the Accounting Profession: A Challenge for the Future?

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Thesis written by a student in the UNT Honors College discussing the evolution of ethics within the accounting profession and the difficulties encountered when personal ethics conflict with the Code of Professional Conduct.

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34, [13] p. ; 28 cm.

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Gryn, Julie E. Autumn 1995.

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• Gryn, Julie E. University of North Texas

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• Cox, Gloria C. University of North Texas; Director of Academic Core Programs
• Clay, Raymond, Jr. University of North Texas; Supervising Professor
• University of North Texas. Honors College. Place of Publication: Denton, Texas

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The UNT Honors College is dedicated to enriching the undergraduate academic experience for talented, motivated, and well-prepared students. The college offers its members many benefits, including challenging classes, training in research methods and skills, eligibility to live in Rawlins Hall or Honors Hall, and a supportive social and academic environment.

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• Discipline: Accounting
• Grantor: University of North Texas
• Level: Bachelor's

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• Accounting.

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• Business, Economics and Finance
• Thesis or Dissertation

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• Archival Resource Key : ark:/67531/metadc146440

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• Autumn 1995

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• Feb. 28, 2013, 7:56 p.m.

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Gryn, Julie E. Ethics in the Accounting Profession: A Challenge for the Future? , thesis or dissertation , Autumn 1995; Denton, Texas . ( https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc146440/ : accessed August 15, 2024 ), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu ; crediting UNT Honors College .

Ethics in Accounting: Analysis of Current Financial Failures and Role of Accountants

International Journal of Management (IJM), 11 (2), pp. 241–247, 2020

7 Pages Posted: 15 Apr 2020

Giriraj Kiradoo

Department of Management & Technology, Government Engineering College Bikaner, Bikaner Area, India

Date Written: 2020

Purpose: The main purpose of this research is to contribute towards enhancing the knowledge regarding importance of ethics in accounting profession. Accounting profession is required to uphold the principles of trustworthiness, transparency, and accuracy in financial reporting. This research informs about the importance of effective ethical behavior among professional accountants to reduce ethical issues in practice. Methodology: This research adopted qualitative systematic review methodology. The careful selection of the studies and evidences was done, which enhanced the quality of findings. This study includes peer reviewed papers and accounting and management books for ensuring the quality of evidences. Critical appraisal of all evidences further helped in collection and synthesis of most relevant evidences. Findings: Findings of this research informs that there are various moral and ethical dilemmas that can result in affecting the quality of accounting. Therefore, compliance to ethical principles and ethical standards is necessary for ensuring the quality, fairness and trustworthiness of accounting statements. It has been identified that financial crisis in the last decade was the result of various financial misstatements and financial frauds. Therefore, analyzing the role of accountants in financial frauds and scandals becomes imperative. This study conducted the systematic review that specifically seeks to answer the research question. This study informs regarding the importance of ethical principles that are important for reducing ethical dilemmas of various forms. Conclusion: This research concludes that professional and personal ethical values are very important for reducing ethical issues in accounting that can result in diminishing the reputation and values of accounting profession.

Keywords: Accounting and Ethics, Ethics of Accounting, Ethical Accounting, Financial Misstatements and Accounting, Accounting and Public Interest

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Giriraj Kiradoo (Contact Author)

Department of management & technology, government engineering college bikaner, bikaner area, india ( email ).

Bikaner Area India

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Ethics and the professional accounting firm: A literature review

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It has often been suggested by some that the expression business ethics is an oxymoron – it employs contradictory terms because business seeks to optimise or maximise gains from its operations while ethics implies a very different basis for business practices. However, although the more cynically minded would seriously subscribe to this view, there has been a very dramatic upturn in an interest in ethical considerations by business leaders and professional business organisations partly as a result of the demands of societies which have had to bear the cost of spectacular corporate collapses and the unscrupulous business activities of a minority of business practitioners. In fact the subject has become an industry with several books on it being published, several courses, seminars, workshops and lectures devoted to the subject, numerous models promulgated and an ever increasing number of comments and debates in the public media.

AMAECHI P EGBUNIKE

Ethical uprising, enforcement of accounting guidelines and discipline by statutory accounting body is an issue of concern that need to be uphold due to the succession of corporate scandals that took place in Nigeria and the world over, thereby undermining the image of the accountancy profession. These corporate scandals in no doubt challenged the credibility of financial statements, auditing and corporate governance practices for which accountants are directly linked with. In this paper, we examined the impasse of the 21st century accountants and the need for ethical revolution, enforcement of accounting guidelines and discipline by statutory accounting body for erring accountants. Several impasses facing the 21st century accountants were identified such as expectation gap (resulting to loss of public confidence in the profession), falsifying financial statements and engaging in ‘negative accounting’ among others. Questionnaire was administered to three (3) classes of respondents (i...

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Girardi Keese Lawyers Had Secret Bank Account as Firm Sunk (1)

By Maia Spoto

New details about a secret bank account — used by former Girardi Keese attorneys to funnel funds in 2020 without Thomas Girardi’s knowledge — emerged on the fifth day of Girardi’s Los Angeles criminal fraud trial.

As Girardi sent messages to employees warning that revenue streams had dried up that year, a handful of former Girardi Keese attorneys were sending funds through Citizen Business Bank in San Bernardino, emails showed.

This testimony about the existence of a bank account hidden from Girardi is the most concrete evidence presented so far that he wasn’t aware of all that was going on at the firm.

Most of the transactions in the secret account were linked to Los Angeles cases, which would have normally gone through L.A. banks, a former employee in the firm’s accounting department testified on Tuesday in the US District Court for the Central District of California.

Norina Rouillard, who worked in the accounting department for nearly two decades and is testifying for the second day, said during cross-examination that she was directed to deal with checks sent to the San Bernardino bank.

“Less we know about this the better,” the firm’s ex-CFO, Christopher Kamon, said in a 2020 email to Rouillard.

Former Girardi Keese attorneys Christopher Aumais, John “Jack” Girardi, and Keith Griffin were involved with the Citizens Business Bank transactions, according to email records shown to the jury.

The California State Bar has since sought to disbar Griffin and David Lira, Girardi’s son-in-law. Lira was charged with a felony in Illinois. John Girardi and Christopher Aumais don’t appear to have a disciplinary record with the lawyer regulatory body.

Aumais and Kamon obtained Lira’s signature stamp as he left the firm mid-June 2020. Lira’s name continued to appear on trust checks in San Bernardino after he left the firm, Rouillard confirmed.

Assistant US Attorney Scott Paetty in re-direct questioning sought to present the jury with the idea that the account might have been secret from Girardi for the benefit of clients. He prompted Rouillard to contextualize the account’s creation with the simultaneous reports that Girardi had stolen from clients.

Focusing on the case of Girardi Keese client Cesar Astorga, whose $5 million on a 2018 settlement was stalled for years, Rouillard said that Griffin was Astorga’s attorney and was “diligent and worked hard for his clients.”

Griffin wrote in a November 2020 email about the San Bernardino account, “as soon as it clears, first wire is to Cesar Astorga.”

Spotlight on Kamon

Rouillard wrapped up her second day of testimony Tuesday, much of which focused on transactions involving Kamon.

She testified on Monday that Girardi determined which clients were paid from trust accounts and when, saying she never recalled seeing Kamon tell Girardi not to pay a client.

On Tuesday, Rouillard recounted instances of Kamon inflating the cost of business expenses to coax Girardi into cutting him larger checks than necessary, and confirmed that Kamon sometimes wrote six- or seven-figure checks with only a period for the description, categorizing them as miscellaneous expenses.

Kamon is the godfather to Rouillard’s son, she said.

Deputy Federal Public Defender Charles Snyder leaned into the government’s strategy of characterizing Kamon as taking advantage of Girardi’s mental decline while questioning Rouillard about Kamon’s transactions.

As Snyder asked her repeatedly to confirm that she thought in late 2020 that Girardi “couldn’t remember shit, he was delusional, and there was nothing that could be done,” Rouillard began to cry, audibly taking deep breaths and grabbing a tissue.

“I had personal stuff going on,” she said.

“Take your time,” Judge Josephine L. Staton said, sending the courtroom for a lunch break.

The case is USA v. Girardi, C.D. Cal., No. 2:23-cr-00047, 8/13/24.

To contact the reporter on this story: Maia Spoto in Los Angeles at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Gleason at [email protected]

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