The Waste Management Scandal is well known as one of the most notable accounting fraud cases in the history of the world. By using improper accounting procedures, Waste Management was able to falsely increase the depreciation time of its property, plant and equipment on its balance sheet, thereby increasing the value of the company. The Waste Management scandal, along with other accounting fraud cases of the time, not only had far-reaching negative consequences, but also highlighted the major mistakes of the accounting profession at the turn of the new century. Waste Management Inc. is a Texas-based public company that provides waste management in North America. It offers a variety of other services, such as landfill gas collection, transfer, recycling, disposal, waste-to-energy, and processing operations in the United States and throughout North America (New York Times n.d.). The fraud involved five senior senior officials of Waste Management Inc. and lasted five years from 1992 to 1997. The defendants, who had complete control of Waste Management Inc. were Waste Management founder and CEO Dean L. Buntrock , President Philip B. Rooney , Vice President James E. Koenig, Chief Accounting Officer Thomas C. Hau, Senior Vice President Herbert Getz, and Vice President Finance Bruce D. Tobecksen (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2002). Coupled with the intimate relationship and support of their review partner, author Anderson, the fraud was renowned as the largest fraudulent practice of the time. Together they had misreported pre-tax profits of more than $1.7 billion. The reason why they started to commit the fraud is because the company's profits did not meet their expectations, so they mistakenly reduced and d...... middle of paper ......also the reason for such changes is necessary. More importantly, auditors should also carefully analyze and evaluate the circumstances under which such changes were made. Additionally, auditors may seek help from other expert people outside the company (third parties) to make an appropriate decision. In conclusion, Waste Management's fraudulent accounting practices have financially ruined large numbers of people; in particular shareholders and investors had lost more than 6 billion dollars. Scandals like the waste management scandal shed light on the flaws of the accounting profession at the time and taught a valuable lesson to our generation. As future auditors, we must take significant action to ensure that such fraudulent practices are detected before they have a chance to become as big as the waste management scandal.