Only 89 of those actions targeted fraudulent or misleading accounting and disclosures by public companies, the fewest, by far, in a decade.

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Companies in industries like tobacco tend to use very conservative accounting practices, in part because they know that their actions draw additional scrutiny from regulators, Kacperczyk says.

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Revenue recognition fraud has been called one of the major accounting issues in the U.S. The SEC has filed recent civil actions alleging it against ex-officials of publicly traded Qwest Communications and Homestore.

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