À la recherche de la vérité des chiffres : le professionnalisme des juricomptables au défi du judiciaire

This article examines how forensic accountants construct their professionalism as part of their investigative and fraud detection practices. From an empirical perspective, the analysis is based on 22 semi-structured interviews conducted in Canada in 2023 with experienced forensic accountants who were members of the Ordre des comptables professionnels agréés (CPA) (Order of Chartered Professional Accountants). We conceptualize forensic accounting as a quasi-profession that is nevertheless practiced by accounting professionals. We show how, in practice, this arrangement involves transferring the “norms–values” equation from the original professional field of accounting to the neighboring field of forensic accounting. This transfer process finds itself confronted in particular by two sublogics that are specific to forensic accounting, and which blur the professional and commercial logics of the original accounting field: first, a professional–judicial logic based on the search for truth as a rigid professional ideal; and second, a commercial–judicial logic that allows for a less antagonistic link between commercial requirements and professional standards. We also identify three types of client relationships in the field of forensic accounting practice—transactional, collaborative, and fiduciary—that fuel a dynamic of intra-institutional complexity. We thus show that the norms–values equation inherited from accounting professionalism becomes what we call an “approximate” norms–values equation, one that is unable to account for the complexity of forensic accounting reality. This mismatch results in adjustments, compromises, and ethical workarounds that provide an insight into the day-to-day work of these practitioners situated at the intersection of numbers and the law.