Detecting Accounting Fraud 1st Edition by Cecil Jackson

Exercise 20

Which of the following is not a signal of overstatement of earnings by improper use of merger reserves? (a) When goodwill on acquisition relates to a company that does not have or is unlikely to have a supernormal return on assets.
(b) When the sales-to-PPE ratio decreases after an acquisition.
(c) When a company that makes a number of acquisitions also creates significant reserves.
(d) Adjustments that increase goodwill in a later period, with respect to an earlier acquisition.