Study finds paying corporate accountants more removes incentives for financial misreporting

Bad bookkeeping's been in the news a lot lately. Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX crypto empire came crashing down amid news that an $8 billion shortfall was being tracked in a sloppy Excel spreadsheet. The Brazilian retailer Americanas has been engulfed in crisis since it revealed a $3.8 billion accounting "irregularity": Its cash reserves had suddenly vanished. The former CEO of the German payments firm Wirecard is on trial for allegedly reporting $2.1 billion in nonexistent revenues.