An International Meeting of the American Accounting Association American Accounting Association 2006 Annual Meeting August 6–9, 2006 Washington, D.C.

Janet S. Greenlee
University of Dayton

Mary Fischer
University of Texas at Tyler

Elizabeth Keating
Harvard University

Teresa Gordon
University of Idaho

Abstract: Although the fraudulent behavior of Enron and others have been widely publicized, the nonprofit sector has not been exempt from either fraud or the bad publicity resulting from the detection of fraud. Many nonprofit leaders claim that the media focuses almost exclusively on the few “bad apples” in the sector. However, little empirical research has been conducted to see if there are, in fact, only a few of these “bad apples” or if, as some believe, fraud is rampant in nonprofit organizations. We use data provided by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners to examine the following: (1) the characteristics of victim nonprofit organizations, (2) types of fraud committed against these organizations, (3) the methods used to detect these frauds, (4) the perpetrators, and (5) the legal outcomes.

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