Off-Balance Sheet Financing: A Weapon to Commit White-Collar Crime

Abstract

Off balance-sheet financing is an accounting technique in which a debt for which a company is obligated does not appear on the company's balance sheet as a liability. Keeping debt off the balance sheet allows a company to appear more creditworthy but misrepresents the firm's financial structure to creditors, shareholders, and the public. The sudden collapse of energy-trading giant Enron Corporation is attributed in large part to the firm's off-balance-sheet financing through multiple partnerships. Off-balancing financing is an aspect of creative accounting. In this paper an attempt has been made to highlight various aspects of off-balance sheet financing as well as to provide some suggestive measures so that such mal practice can be eradicated.