Fraudes corporativas: um estudo de casos múltiplos à luz da teoria dos escândalos corporativos

Abstract

The present study is an empirical research of qualitative nature and aims to compare the characteristics of fraud committed by means of manipulation in the financial statements of Daslu, Kmart and Avestruz Master companies. It has been trying to check differences between fraud in Brazil and in United States with regard to the motivations and purposes of the fraudulent action, accounting handling methods used and to corporate governance adopted by companies. The work was developed, following the methodology of study of multiple cases, using a case study protocol, which included general rules and procedures observed in the survey, with the function of increasing the reliability of the study and guide the researcher work. The selection of studied cases was based on previous research that mentioned fraud practiced in Brazil and in United States in last decade. The results indicate that frauds have showed differences in fraud operation and in its author, with evidence of the application of fraud triangle (TTF) and the corporate scandals (TEC) theories. Whereas the corporations studied had corporate governance system similar to that of European companies, the observed differences in investigated frauds can be explained by the theory of corporate scandals (TEC) defended by Coffee Jr. (2005).