Oriol Amat and Emili Gironella, full academicians of the Royal European Academy of Doctors of Barcelona 1914 (RAED), have offered some keys to detect cases of fraud during the Conference of the Economist 2016 organized by the College of Economists of Catalonia this November 11.

For Amat, who chairs the Catalan Association of Accounting and Management (ACCID), behind every detail that escapes to accounting analysis may be the first indication of fraud. “The first sign that at Lehman Brothers things did not keep the orthodoxy was when its president and operating officer, Joseph Gregory, decided to switch from one day to another the subway by helicopter to go to work without the company accounts presented no benefit”, he said.

Gironella, for its part, has estimated the need of protagonists of corruption in 25% of cases and in 75% the simple opportunity. “Current accounting allows for too much manipulation and politicians are the most blatant case of opportunistic corruption” he said.