The Deloitte Forensic Center conducted an analysis of 344 Securities and Exchange Commission financial statement fraud "accounting and auditing enforcement releases" (AAERs) issued from 2000 through 2006.

The resulting paper provides snapshots of the data collected from the SEC's enforcement releases relating to frauds allegedly committed by companies, officers and employees. It reports the number of frauds by industry and type and comments on the trends emerging in this millennium.

According to the report, Ten Things About Financial Statement Fraud, legislation such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act have curbed fraud in the last few years. The SEC issued 35 releases in 2001, a peak 77 in 2003, and just 44 in 2006. 

However, fraud schemes have remained steady since 2003, hovering between 215 schemes in 2003 to 208 schemes in 2006. In total, the analysis identified 1,240 fraud schemes in the 344 financial statement fraud AAERs. Most companies had between one and five fraud schemes under investigation, but 22 companies had more than 10 fraud schemes. Four of the 22 companies had 20 fraud schemes.

The prevalent fraud scheme was revenue recognition, at 41 percent of the total. Over one-third of these companies recorded fictitious revenue. Other fraud schemes included improper disclosures (12 percent) and manipulation of expenses (11 percent), assets (8 percent) and liabilities (7 percent).

The Deloitte Forensic Center said it will issue another report that "goes beyond trend analysis to consider why financial statement fraud persists." The intent is to update the study annually to provide longer views of trends, and to broaden coverage by including restatements and securities litigation in the analysis.