"When a company’s numbers look too good, they often are,” says Bank of America Merrill Lynch. That’s easy to say, but often harder to prove.

　　美銀美林（Bank of America Merrill Lynch）說，當一家公司的財務(wù)數(shù)據(jù)看上去過于漂亮時，他們往往是……。不過這話說的容易，想要證實卻比較困難。

　　But thanks to BofA-ML’s guidelines, now anybody can engage in a bit of sleuthing, Muddy Waters style. Focusing on 32 Chinese companies listed in the U.S., Hong Kong and China where there were publicly disclosed details regarding fraud, BofA-ML says there are three common accounting frauds and three common ways of finding out.

　　Everett Collection多虧了美銀美林的指導(dǎo)，現(xiàn)在任何人都可以從事一些偵查工作，而且風格類似獨立調(diào)查公司Muddy Waters。在集中研究了32家在美國、香港和中國上市的中資企業(yè)之后，美銀美林說，市場上有三類常見的會計欺詐行為，也有三種常見的方法可以查出這些行為。上述三地市場均對會計欺詐進行公開披露。

　　The “three common manipulations”:

　　下面是三種常見的股價操縱行為：

　　1. Sales to non-existing customers.

　　1. 向子虛烏有的客戶銷售產(chǎn)品

　　Example: RINO International Corp. admitted in March that at least two of its manufacturing contracts didn’t exist after a report issued by Muddy Waters (yes, them again) in November 2010. The Chinese equipment maker was suspended by the Securities and Exchange Commission in April after RINO failed to disclose to shareholders that investigators looking into fraud allegations at the company had resigned.

　　例子：Muddy Waters（是的，又是他們）在2010年11月發(fā)布了一份報告之后，綠諾國際有限公司（RINO International Corp.）今年3月承認，該公司至少有兩份制造合同根本不存在。今年4月，美國證券交易委員會（Securities and Exchange Commission，簡稱：SEC）暫停了綠諾國際這家設(shè)備制造商的股票交易。此前該公司沒有向股東披露正在調(diào)查欺詐指控的調(diào)查人員已經(jīng)辭職的事實。

　　2. Inflating sales and cost of goods via related party transactions.

　　2. 通過關(guān)聯(lián)方交易夸大銷量和產(chǎn)品成本

　　Example: New York-listed Duoyuan Global Water Inc. faced lawsuits late last year alleging, among other things, the existence of accounting improprieties. Regulators suspended the stock from trading in March, as the company failed to bring its filings to the SEC up to date. A Muddy Waters report in April later said Duoyuan engaged in “improper undisclosed related party transactions that transfer money to its chairman.”

　　例子：去年年底，在紐約上市的多元環(huán)球水務(wù)公司（Duoyuan Global Water Inc.）面臨多項指控，首當其沖的便是存在會計處理不當?shù)男袨椤＝衲?月，監(jiān)管機構(gòu)暫停這只股票的交易，因為該公司至今未能向SEC提交備案文件。今年4月Muddy Waters的一份報告指出，多元水務(wù)公司涉及“未經(jīng)披露的不當關(guān)聯(lián)方交易，這些交易將資金轉(zhuǎn)移至該公司主席名下”。

　　3. Overstating cash or understating bank loans.

　　3. 高估現(xiàn)金或低估銀行債務(wù)

　　Example: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu CPA resigned as Longtop Financial Technologies Ltd.’s auditor in May, citing recently identified false financial records related to cash at bank and loan balances and possibly sales revenue. 例子：今年5月，德勤會計師事務(wù)所（Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu）的注冊會計師辭去了東南融通金融技術(shù)有限公司（Longtop Financial Technologies Ltd.）的審計師一職，因為德勤發(fā)現(xiàn)與銀行存款及貸款余額相關(guān)的財務(wù)記錄存在造假行為，銷售收入可能也存在問題。

　　The “three ways of detection”:

　　以下是三種發(fā)現(xiàn)問題的方法：

　　1. Checking bank statements.

　　1. 查驗銀行對賬單。

　　According to BofA-ML:

　　美銀美林說：

　　“Many of these companies suffer from acute cash flow pressure, as they have to spend to convince outside parties, but their spending won’t generate economic returns, e.g., keeping a big sales team to make big sales numbers more plausible. As a result, they often have to live on borrowing from related parties or banks.”

　　這類公司中有很多都承受著巨大的現(xiàn)金流壓力，因為他們不得不大把花錢以說服外部各方。但這些支出不會產(chǎn)生經(jīng)濟效益：比如為了讓夸大的銷售數(shù)據(jù)看上去更為可信，他們不得不維持一只龐大的銷售隊伍。所以他們往往得向銀行或關(guān)聯(lián)方借款才能生存。

　　As such, BofA-ML recommends people check bank statements, which are “difficult to dress up.”

　　所以從這個角度說，美銀美林建議各位查驗銀行對賬單，因為銀行對賬單很難造假。

　　2. Cross-checking with the company’s government filings.

　　2. 利用目標公司向政府提交的備案文件交叉核驗財務(wù)數(shù)據(jù)。

　　BofA-ML says companies need to submit “more realistic” statements to relevant government authorities because “they are more difficult to fool.” As such, there’s often a gap between filings made to the government and to the public. 美銀美林說，此類公司必須向有關(guān)政府機構(gòu)提交“更為真實”的財務(wù)報表，因為有關(guān)政府機構(gòu)更難以被糊弄。因此，向政府提交的備案文件和向公眾披露的數(shù)據(jù)之間往往存在差異。

　　3. Field checks.

　　3. 實地檢驗。

　　BofA-ML recommends people actually go check out these companies’ operations where possible. In some cases, you don’t even go and get your hands dirty it cites the example of one publication which used online monitoring to discover that the traffic to New York-listed China Education Alliance’s website was much lower than reported.

　　美銀美林建議各位盡可能實地檢驗此類公司的經(jīng)營狀況。在某些情況下，你甚至都不用親自跑一趟。美銀美林舉了一個例子：一家刊物只是利用了在線監(jiān)測數(shù)據(jù)就發(fā)現(xiàn)了在紐約上市的中國教育聯(lián)盟（China Education Alliance）的網(wǎng)站流量數(shù)據(jù)比其公布的要低得多。