【正文】 ture. WHY FRAUD OCCURS Fraud researchers have found three elements mon to all frauds. These three elements of the fraud triangle are (1) perceived pressure, (2) perceived opportunity, and (3) some way to rationalize the fraud as acceptable and consistent with one’s personal code of ethics (Albrecht et al., 2021a). Whether the dishonest act involves fraud against a pany, such as employee embezzlement, or fraud on behalf of a pany, such as management fraud, these three elements are always present. Figure 1 illustrates the fraud triangle. Every fraud perpetrator faces some kind of perceived pressure. Most pressures involve a financial need, although nonfinancial pressures such as the need to report results better than actual performance, frustration with work, or even a challenge to beat the system, can also motivate fraud. Note that this element is perceived pressure, not necessarily real pressure. Pressures perceived by one individual, such as a gambling addiction, may not be pressures to another individual. Examples of perceived financial pressures that can motivate fraud on behalf of a pany (., financial statement fraud) are financial losses, falling sales, failure to meet Wall Street’s earnings expectations, or the inability to pete with other panies. Fraud perpetrators must also have a perceived opportunity that allows the fraud act. Even with intense perceived pressures, executives who believe they will be caught and punished rarely mit fraud (Albrecht et al., 2021b). Executives who believe they have an opportunity to mit and/or conceal fraud often give in to their perceived pressures. Perceived opportunities to mit management fraud include factors such as a weak board of directors or inadequate internal controls. Finally, fraud perpetrators must have some way to rationalize their actions as acceptable. For corporate executives, rationalizations to mit fraud might include thoughts such as “we need to keep the stock price high,” “all panies use aggressive accounting 3 practices,” or “it is for the good of the pany.” These three elements of the fraud triangle are interactive. With fraud, the greater the perceived opportunity or the more intense the pressure, the less rationalization it takes for someone to mit fraud. Likewise, the more dishonest a perpetrator is and the easier it is for him or her to rationalize deviant behavior, the less opportunity and/or pressure it takes to motivate fraud. REASON RECENT LARGESCALE FRAUDS OCCURRED The fraud triangle provides insight into why recent financial statement frauds occurred. In addition to the factors that motivate a person to mit fraud, there were several specific elements that led to the largescale frauds of the past decade (Albrecht et al., 2021). These elements contributed to a perfect storm that led to the massive frauds of the last few years. The first element of this perfect storm was the masking of many existing problems and uhical actions by the expanding economies of the 1990s and early 2021s. During this time, most businesses appeared to be highly profitable, including many new “dot” panies that were testing new and unproven (and many times unprofitable) business models. The economy was booming, and investment was high. In this period of perceived success, people made nonsensical investment and other advent of investing over the Inter for a few dollars per trade brought many new, inexperienced people to the stock market. It is now clear that many of the frauds revealed since 2021 were actually being mitted during the boom years, but that the apparent booming economy hid the fraudulent booming economy also caused executives, board members, and stockholders to believe that their panies were more successful than they actually were and that their panies’ success was primarily a result of good management. In addition, research has shown that extended periods of prosperity can reduce a firm’s motivation to prehend the causes of success, raising the likelihood of faulty attributions (Sundaramurthy and Lewis, 2021). The second element of the perfect storm was the moral decay that had been occurring in the United States and around the world. Political correctness did many 4 good things for society, but it also ve