Here Are the Companies That Are Least Likely to Screw You

The financial crisis sure has revealed that investors and clients ought to be skeptical of companies' statements of their own performance! And so, with an eye to finding the firms that aren't quite as hell-bent on deception, Forbes has published analytics company Audit Integrity's list of the most trustworthy companies.

Audit Integrity looked through financial statements and balance sheets and probed more than 100 other factors to "identify the measures most highly associated with fraud and to quantify the risks that companies' stock prices will tank, that their managers will be forced to restate their financials and that outsiders will hit them with securities lawsuits," says Forbes Sounds useful!

So how well did the titans of business do? Perhaps unsurprisingly, "Fewer than 5% of public companies make Audit Integrity's Most Trustworthy Companies list." Yet less surprising: Few of the big names most people would recognize from credit-crisis headlines are included in the list Forbes published.

Some of the best companies:

• Westfield Financial, a bank
• U.S. Cellular, a telecoms firm
• Cool-clothes retailer Hot Topic
• Bowling company Bowl America
• Food-processing firm Overhill Farms

Some of the worst:

• Health-industries firm Clarient
• Syrupy drink purveyor Coca-Cola Enterprises
• Dollar-store operator Family Dollar