This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
asi convino y debio verse
al descubierto

Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

\"ocultamiento y maquillaje\"

English translation:

\"concealment and massaging of figures\"

Added to glossary by Mónica Algazi
Apr 26, 2018 17:31
6 yrs ago
7 viewers *
Spanish term

\"ocultamiento y maquillaje\"

Spanish to English Bus/Financial Law (general) Juicio
Fulanito de tal convocó a los antiguos accionistas, incluidos sus hijos, a una instancia de conciliación previa, antes de iniciar un juicio por "ocultamiento y maquillaje" que llevaron al desmedro del valor de la tienda.

Any ideas? TIA!
Proposed translations (English)
3 +4 concealment and fraud
4 +2 cooking the books / accounting fraud / creative accounting
3 -1 hiding and overdoing things (to the detriment of ..)
References
Delito contable y principales *maquillajes* contables ilegales

Discussion

Robert Carter Apr 27, 2018:
@Marcelo Thanks again!
Marcelo González Apr 27, 2018:
It´s all good, Robert. As you (Lorena and many others) know: it´s not always about the KudoZ (as nice as there are), but about collaborating to find the best options. Here, it might depend on whether you want to convey the idiomaticity in maquillaje with an idiomatic expression (which would probably not be the name of a crime in English) or the name of an actual crime (which would not produce that same figurative effect of covering something up to make it look prettier than it actually is). That said, you appear to have your bases covered with options for both approaches.
Robert Carter Apr 27, 2018:
Nice Lorena... I'd forgotten that one!
lorenab23 Apr 27, 2018:
massaging the figures Don't know if this is correct but I have almost always seen "maquillar cifras" as massaging the figures.
Robert Carter Apr 27, 2018:
@Marcelo Sorry, I posted an entry after seeing your reference post, but I've only just noticed your discussion comment. Obviously, I agree with your "cooking the books" comment, so if you'd care to post, I'll remove mine. Saludos!
Marcelo González Apr 26, 2018:
In this context, other words and ideas... ...that might be useful may include "financial statement fraud" (as a specific type of fraud) and (the idiomatic expression) "cooking the books," all part of a financial "cover-up" (of sorts) to make the business appear to be worth more than it actually is.

https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Financial Statement Fraud Casebo...

Proposed translations

+4
8 mins
Spanish term (edited): ocultamiento y maquillaje
Selected

concealment and fraud

haven't time to give refs
Note from asker:
Thank you, AllegroTrans!
Peer comment(s):
agree David Hollywood : nice
4 mins
thanks
agree Marcelo González
52 mins
thanks
agree Sandro Tomasi : Ditto on cover-up. // Exactly. Just as “maquillaje” is not a legal term either.
1 hr
thanks, but "cover up" would never be used in formal legal language
agree Robert Carter : As per Marcelo's ref., I don't think it means "cover-up" in any case. The informal term would be "cooking the books", so although "fraud" is okay, perhaps "falsifying accounts" would be more specific?
7 hrs
thanks and yes
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Muchas gracias. Aprendí muchísimo con cada uno de ustedes."
-1
34 mins

hiding and overdoing things (to the detriment of ..)

I would suggest
Note from asker:
Thanks, Ellen.
Peer comment(s):
neutral Robert Forstag : I am fairly certain that the term "overdoing things" would not be used as part of a criminal or civil charge anywhere in the English-speaking world.
36 mins
disagree AllegroTrans : NOT the language of law
39 mins
Something went wrong...
+2
7 hrs
Spanish term (edited): ocultamiento y maquillaje

cooking the books / accounting fraud / creative accounting

What does 'Cook The Books' mean
Cook the books is an idiom describing fraudulent activities performed by corporations in order to falsify their financial statements. Typically, cooking the books involves augmenting financial data to yield previously nonexistent earnings.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cookthebooks.asp#ixzz5D...

This seems a fairly informal text, so I don't see why "cooking the books" wouldn't work here, but if you need a more formal term, you could use "fraudulent accounting".
Compare the text I've highlighted in bold in the following definition with what is meant by the Spanish term "ocultamiento y maquillaje":

What is accounting fraud?
By Steven Nickolas
Accounting fraud is intentional manipulation of financial statements to create a facade of a company's financial health. It involves an employee, account or the organization itself and is misleading to investors and shareholders. A company can falsify its financial statements by overstating its revenue or assets, not recording expenses and under-recording liabilities.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032715/what-account...

Be careful with using "creative accounting" though:

Apart from the expression 'cooking the books' this use of 'cook' has become less common in the 19th and 20th centuries. The preferred euphemism for the manipulation of financial statements has come to be 'creative accounting'. This is first recorded in the 1960s and is attributed to the US comedian Irwin Corey, as in this example from the Middlesboro Daily News, May 1968:
'Professor' Irwin Corey claims his CPA [Certified Public Accountant] isn't exactly crooked - but the government's questioning him about his "creative accounting".
The numerous corporate fraud cases of the 1990s turned public opinion against the semi-admiring tone of 'creative accounting' and journalists stopped using it. That, and the transformation of bookshops, which now seem to sell more coffee and cakes than they do books, has brought about a revival of the term 'cooking the books', which looks like staying with us for some years to come.
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cook-the-books.html
Note from asker:
Excellent reference and links. Thank you, Robert!
Peer comment(s):
agree Marcelo González : Yes, AllegroTran's "concealment" and, depending on the extent to which 'maquillaje' is used as the name of a crime, something similarly figurative might be considered. Either way, Mónica's got some nice options. :-)
2 hrs
Cheers, Marcelo. I feel "accounting fraud" covers both "ocultamiento" and "maquillaje": see quote above about "overstating its revenue or assets, not recording expenses and under-recording liabilities".
agree Sandro Tomasi : I think cooking the books is good cause it preserves the non-legal register of the original. I don't know why it would not be cover-up, though.
4 days
Thanks, Sandro. A cover-up strikes me more as concealment of criminality or of acts that are politically damaging. Perhaps I'm mistaken?
Something went wrong...

Reference comments

1 hr
Reference:

Delito contable y principales *maquillajes* contables ilegales

Resumen
El maquillaje contable ilegal es un delito ya que vulnera la legislación. Se trata de un engaño que falsea las cuentas u otros documentos contables y suele provocar importantes perjuicios a la empresa o a otras personas. Cuando se descubre el fraude se produce un escándalo que suele acabar con importantes sanciones e inclusive con penas de prisión. Este artículo describe este tipo de maquillajes
https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=6062223

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 hrs (2018-04-27 04:15:16 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"Financial Statement Fraud Casebook: Baking the Ledgers and Cooking the Books"
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Financial Statement Fraud Casebo...
Note from asker:
¡Gracias, Marcelo! Saludos.
Peer comments on this reference comment:
agree Robert Carter : "False accounting"?
5 hrs
"fraudulent accounting practices" or "financial statement fraud" perhaps
Something went wrong...
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search