Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Parmalat as an Accounting Scandal

Back when the Enron scandal broke, there was a lot of self-satisfied commentary in Europe about the evils of unregulated Anglo-Saxon capitalism (written in what Samizdata.net accurately calls a "smug tone"). The difficulty with the European line of reasoning, however, was that Enron was basically an accounting fraud (as have been most of the other major corporate scandals). Nobody who knew anything about European accounting standards was surprised when it turned out that Europe had its own share of Enrons just waiting to be discovered.

As I explained in my article Mandatory Disclosure: A Behavioral Analysis:

[M]any international issuers have voluntarily adopted U.S.-style accounting standards that promote transparency. One study of the German disclosure regime found, for example:

German managers have had difficulty explaining their (German GAAP) financial results to foreign investors and have claimed that a lack of international acceptance of German financial statements has led to disadvantages for firms seeking to raise capital abroad. In response to these problems and their financial needs, many German firms have increased their disclosure voluntarily and have adopted reporting strategies that bring them closer to international practice. [Christian Leuz and Robert E. Verrechchia, The Economic Consequences of Increased Disclosure (July 1999).]

Those chickens came home to first with Dutch retailer Ahold and now with a vengeance with Parmalat. As it turns out, neither the US nor Europe has any shortage of accounting loopholes or of businessmen eager to cease upon them to conceal losses or of lawyers and auditors prepared to assist.

Related post: Parmalat as a Corporate Governance Scandal