Criminal liability of the auditor for falsification of official documents

Abstract

The paper examines the reasons for bringing the auditor to criminal liability for forging official documents. In connection with russia's aggressive war against Ukraine and in order to fulfill the requirements of the current legislation, the auditor is obliged to verify the results of the initial financial monitoring as of the date of acceptance of the client, in particular, to establish the ultimate beneficial owner of the client. However, the presence or absence of the ultimate beneficial owner of the client cannot be verified, since this information is not recorded by the auditor anywhere, because the law does not oblige the auditor to indicate this in the audit report. So, due to this gap in the legislation, the auditor will not be subject to criminal liability in case of non-compliance with these requirements. Based on the results of the audit of financial statements (consolidated financial statements), the auditor prepares and issues an audit report signed by him in accordance with international auditing standards and the requirements of the law. In addition, the state auditor forms and signs a report on the results of the audit based on the results of the state financial audit. Based on the results of the environmental audit, the environmental auditor draws up and certifies with a signature and seal the conclusion of the environmental audit, which is a professional assessment of the object of the environmental audit. A criminal offense can be committed by an auditor only through an action, namely: in the case of drawing up and issuing an official document signed by him, which, being properly designed on the outside, contains information that is completely or partially untrue. In order to fulfill the requirements of the current legislation, it is proposed to make changes to the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine «On the Audit of Financial Statements and Auditing Activities».