[kieselguhr_kid]

Have you worked with a reputable outside auditor? You don't just provide numbers and illustrate your methodology for obtaining them, you have to essentially reconstruct your entire revenue and finance system with them, provide ongoing random samplings, demonstrate the consistency of any calculations, and many, many other steps that I don't have time to illustrate. Companies couldn't just provide a false number, they'd have to construct a parallel revenue and finance system with false data. Do some companies still cheat and get away with it even after audits? Of course. But it's a major deterrent to this kind of behavior and a reputable auditor would have caught many of FTX's illegal activities much earlier.

[luckylion]

That depends on how much effort it is to fool the auditors. Will it cost you 5bn a year or 5mn? It worked for Wirecard, and as far as I understand, it wasn't super sophisticated either.