The aim of the paper is to present answers to questions of motivation, manipulation and means used to commit fraud in organizations. Fraud is a serious problem everywhere in the world, which often means huge financial losses not only for the company itself. The risk of fraud in companies is often considered insignificant and therefore no preventive measures are taken to minimize the possibility of fraud. A sample of 128 accounting companies within the Czech Republic was selected for the questionnaire. The individual characteristics of accountants were investigated and analyzed. Their weak areas where the risk of fraud is most often encountered and the outcome of qualitative and quantitative research suggests how to identify or eliminate the potential threats of fraud.

We have established three scientific hypotheses: 1: Were the accounting companies familiar with cases of fraud or manipulation of data in accounting? 2. To what extent is creative accounting extended in accounting companies within the Czech Republic? 3. How do accounting companies perceive the sanctions (or penalties) for creative accounting?

These hypotheses have been verified with the aid of descriptive statistics, proportional tests and chi-square test of independence at the 5% significance level. All calculations were performed in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel. The results of our research confirmed that most of the accounting companies in the Czech Republic were not familiar with cases of fraud or manipulation of data in accounting and more accountants with higher education were aware of cases of accounting fraud than the accountants with secondary education. Moreover, this research has shown that most accounting companies did not use creative accounting and there is no difference in the views of the accountants regarding the use of creative accounting irrespective of the level of education attained. In addition, our research has shown that most accounting companies have agreed to penalize creative bookkeeping and these sanctions (or penalties) were perceived more by accountants with higher education than those with secondary education. Specification of this influence can provide important insights into further developments in the field of fraud committed by organizations.