cooked books
Manipulated financial statements
Cooked books are financial records that have been falsified to hide fraud, embezzlement, or poor performance.
The phrase comes from *cook the books*, meaning to manipulate accounting figures: The auditors discovered the company had cooked books going back five years.
The cooking metaphor suggests ingredients have been altered to produce a more palatable result.
- fraudIntentional criminal trickery
- falsifiedMade deliberately inaccurate
- embezzlementFraudulent taking of entrusted assets
- accountingMaintaining financial records
- ledgerFinancial record book
audit · paper trail · manipulation · deception · scandal · numbers · fudged · doctored · creative accounting · funny money · financial · swindle · cover-up · irregularities · misrepresentation · tax evasion · balance sheet · shady
- embezzlementpeculation, defalcation, misuse of funds, misappropriation, siphoning
- financial fraudsecurities fraud, bank fraud, accounting fraud, defalcation, embezzler
- deceptionlie, lies, lying, fake, fraud
- corruptioncorruption, graft, kickbacks, bribery, bribes
- dirty moneydirty money, ill-gotten gains, illicit funds, illicit gains, proceeds of crime
- forgeriesforged passport, forged signature, forged check, fake passport, fake ID