cook the books
to manipulate an organization's accounting records
TRANSLATION
cook the books = die Geschäftsbücher fälschen --- GOOGLE INDEX cook the books: approximately 400,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
In one of Berlin's most popular Greek restaurants, diners are greeted by a fresco of smiling dancers, hands on one another's shoulders, against a background of Aegean blue. But that idyllic image has been shattered. While tucking into mezes and moussaka, many here show little appetite for Greece COOKING THE BOOKS and Germany footing the bill.
(BBC News)
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SIPC Chief: Madoff COOKED THE BOOKS to Hide Losses
(Fox News)
(BBC News)
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SIPC Chief: Madoff COOKED THE BOOKS to Hide Losses
(Fox News)
Did you
know?
cook the books
idiom
- to change numbers dishonestly in the accounts (= financial records) of an organization, especially in order to steal money from it
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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At first glance, the verb "cook" may seem like a strange word to connect with crime. Upon closer inspection however, it becomes a logical choice. After all, cooking usually involves adding ingredients that are modified to produce something else. It can be viewed as a form of manipulation, but not in a negative sense.
According to the Phrase Finder, cook has been used in this context as far back as the 17th century. By the 18th century, the connection to finances was well established: "Some falsified printed accounts, artfully cooked up, on purpose to mislead and deceive." (from Tobias Smollett's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, 1751)
By the turn of the new millennium companies like Enron and Worldcom brought a totally new dimension to the expression "cook the books" by altering their accounts by billions of dollars. Late night American talk show host Jay Leno had a few words to say about Enron's "creative accounting" schemes:
"This past Sunday, former Enron CEO Ken Lay went to a church in Houston. On the way out, a reporter asked him if he thought everything was going to work out. Lay said, "With God's help we'll get through it." To which the Devil said, "Hey, I thought we had a deal."
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"They fired him for cooking the books."
idiom
- to change numbers dishonestly in the accounts (= financial records) of an organization, especially in order to steal money from it
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
At first glance, the verb "cook" may seem like a strange word to connect with crime. Upon closer inspection however, it becomes a logical choice. After all, cooking usually involves adding ingredients that are modified to produce something else. It can be viewed as a form of manipulation, but not in a negative sense.
According to the Phrase Finder, cook has been used in this context as far back as the 17th century. By the 18th century, the connection to finances was well established: "Some falsified printed accounts, artfully cooked up, on purpose to mislead and deceive." (from Tobias Smollett's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, 1751)
By the turn of the new millennium companies like Enron and Worldcom brought a totally new dimension to the expression "cook the books" by altering their accounts by billions of dollars. Late night American talk show host Jay Leno had a few words to say about Enron's "creative accounting" schemes:
"This past Sunday, former Enron CEO Ken Lay went to a church in Houston. On the way out, a reporter asked him if he thought everything was going to work out. Lay said, "With God's help we'll get through it." To which the Devil said, "Hey, I thought we had a deal."
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"They fired him for cooking the books."
