The blindfold witness? An accountant's response to slavery and atrocity in the Devil's Paradise

Stephen P. Walker

The British Accounting Review, 2023, vol. 55, issue 3

Abstract: This study discusses the case of a professional accountant who was alleged to have been wilfully blind to the enslavement and barbaric treatment of indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon during the early twentieth century. Ideological positioning and the prospect of personal advancement are discussed as possible motives for such blindness. The practitioner in question claimed ignorance of the abuses in his midst. He contended that his responsibilities as an accountant did not extend to investigating the condition of labour and that the brutal treatment of indigenous peoples in the upper reaches of the supply chain was deliberately hidden from his view by the client company. The findings have implications for current day discourses about the role of accountants and auditors in detecting and addressing modern slavery.

Keywords: Accountancy profession; Slavery; Atrocity; Wilful blindness; Amazon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:bracre:v:55:y:2023:i:3:s0890838921000949

DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2021.101068

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