Oh, nobody hands over a brown envelope of cash and tells the auditors to make a mistake. Instead, the company under audit pays the auditor $$$$ for 'consultanc

Oh, nobody hands over a brown envelope of cash and tells the auditors to make a mistake. Instead, the company under audit pays the auditor $$$$ for 'consultancy services' if the audit goes well, and fires them if they're too argumentative or time-consuming. The results of this are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_%26_Young#Accounting_scandals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_%26_Young#Accounting_sca... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers#Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PricewaterhouseCoopers#Litigat... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deloitte#Litigation_and_regulatory_action https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deloitte#Litigation_and_regula... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPMG#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPMG#Controversies While it's nothing like as bad as the cryptocurrency market, where scams are a daily occurrence, nobody investing in the stock market should imagine these auditors are going to catch anything but the most blatant fraud.