FRAUD DETECTION BY TESTING THE CONFORMITY TO BENFORD’S LAW IN THE CASE OF WHOLESALE ENTERPRISES

Abstract

The latest international crisis of the financial markets highlights the risks of instability, and the consequences of financial crime have a considerable effect on the performance of enterprises.The manipulation of selling prices or elements of financial statements even contribute to economic and social conflict in certain countries.The purpose of this study is to explore whether the conformity to Benford's law of forensic accounting data is sustainable in the case of wholesale trade enterprises in the examined (2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015) period and Hungarian region.Our research aims to test various elementary and advanced (goodness-of-fit) statistical techniques to assess the validity of the reported statements.Overall, after examining the deviations in reflected and expected frequencies we assert the non-conformity of this law in some cases.However, our motivation is not only to suggest applied recommendations to enhance accountability for entrepreneurships, but also to outline further research directions to improve the forensic fraud detection and better understanding of accountancy crimes for the management.