cook the books

/kˈʊk ðə bˈʊks/

[phrase]

to cook the books

[PHRASE]

to illegally change the financial records of a company or organization for personal gain

Examples

1. His accountant had been cooking the books for years.

2. He was an accountant, he could have cooked the books and made himself a lot more money.

3. The idea that these two had got together to cook the books was just astonishing.

4. Ben Affleck stars as Christian Wolff in The Accountant, a math savant who uses his cover as a CPA to cook the books for all manner of less-than-savory enterprises.