Although relatively rare, frauds committed by corporate executives are often quite spectacular and can incur significant losses for investors and other stakeholders (employees, governments, creditors, etc.). The majority of these frauds involve accounting and financial manipulations. In this article, we first define the main types of fraud involving financial statements, including misappropriation of assets, manipulation of financial results, failure of disclosure, incomplete disclosure or false disclosure. We then analyze the organizational characteristics related to fraud and individual characteristics commonly associated with executives accused of fraud. Finally, we draw lessons for the main bodies responsible for upholding the integrity of financial markets, including boards of directors, regulatory agencies and auditors, as well as financial analysts, journalists and other market watchers. To illustrate our arguments, we use the specific case of Cinar, while also referring to a number of other prominent cases.