Using case studies of your choice, critically evaluate the factors that led to financial fraud and examine how such frauds might have been prevented.

In writing your essay you should follow these guidelines:

• Use one or more of the core topics from the lecture programme to inform your comparison, eg:
  • Creative accounting and accounting manipulation, valuation and mis-valuation
  • The motivation and psychology of the protagonists
  • Methods used to carry out the fraud
  • Comparative institutional and regulatory frameworks in the same jurisdiction through time
  • Comparative institutional and regulatory frameworks across international jurisdictions
  • Corporate governance and internal control
• Engage with the academic literature and relevant theory to inform your analysis and to evaluate your evidence.
• Include a bibliography of all works cited.
• Support your analysis with evidence, drawn where possible from multiple and corroborating sources.
• You should use a minimum of two case studies, but you can use more than two if you wish to inform your comparison and evaluation.
• Use an analytical model or models to structure your answer.

Use a logical argument and structure.