[TheOtherHobbes]

Except when it is. See also Enron, the Trump "empire", Libor, gold price fixing, the 2008 crash, S&L, and many more.

[ryanjshaw]

Fraud != financial engineering.

[crispyambulance]

GE was once a mighty company with amazing technology and R&D.

Now they're a sad shell of what they used to be and consist of way too many bored finance people on a slowly sinking ship.

[jhayward]

Is that a definition, or a statement that financial engineering has nothing in common with fraud, or some other statement?

From my view the greater the degree of 'financial engineering' in a company's P/L the greater the likelihood that some kind of fraud upon the investor or business partner is being conducted.