AccountingScandal

For many companies, meeting or beating quarterly earnings estimates matters more than anything else. All too often, the drive to perform bleeds into a temptation to cook the books. But astute investors can see behind the numbers to glimpse the truth. Here are a few of the major red flags.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed a civil lawsuit against Ernst & Young, alleging that the accounting giant helped now-defunct investment bank Lehman Brothers hide billions of dollars in debt from its investors via loans disguised as sales.

After a five-year investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, computer maker Dell agreed to pay a $100 million settlement to end civil charges of fraudulent accounting. The agency accuses Dell of pumping up its reported profits with undisclosed payments from Intel.

How does the alleged $31 million fraud at Koss Corp., a company with sales of no more than $45 million, go undetected for years? Blame management. It gave the employee charged with misappropriating funds far too much autonomy. And it never told auditors to do more than just the required audit.