Ivar Kreuger Reborn: A Swedish/American Accounting Fraud Resurfaces in Italy and India

Abstract:     
Accounting fraud has been widely publicized in recent years, especially the large frauds perpetrated at U. S. companies such as Enron and WorldCom, but frauds are not country specific, and similar events have occurred in the past decade in many countries, including Italy and India. What is noticeable about the Italian Parmalat fraud and the Indian UTI fraud is their similarity to the Swedish/American fraud perpetrated for many years by Ivar Kreuger and uncovered in 1932. Although the Kreuger & Toll fraud was discovered following the suicide of Kreuger in March 1932, he, or at least his ideas about accounting and auditing, have been reborn in Italy and India. The Parmalat and UTI cases shared many similarities to that of Kreuger, particularly his view that audits and periodic reporting to shareholders were unnecessary. Whether talking about the Ivar Kreuger of 1932, the Indian UTI episode of the 1990s, or Parmalat of 2004, the story is the same; history repeats itself.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 24

Keywords: Ivar Kreuger, Accounting Fraud, Parmalat, UTI

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