...assignments, exams, term papers, and other projects required by the faculty mentor. The known submission of another person’s work represented as that of the Learner’s without properly citing the source of the work will be considered plagiarism and will result in an unsatisfactory grade for the work submitted or for the entire course, and may result in academic dismissal. | | MGT-7019 | Jo Ann Davis | | | Ethics in Business | Assignment 7 – Case Study: A Primer on Sarbanes-Oxley | | | ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Faculty Use Only ------------------------------------------------- <Faculty comments here> ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- <Faculty Name> <Grade Earned> <Writing Score> <Date Graded> Case Study: A Primer on Sarbanes-Oxley Tanya M. Johnson MGT 7019: Ethics in Business Northcentral University February 3, 2013 Abstract In the wake of...
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...A Primer on Sarbanes-Oxley The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was declared a law in 2002 (Orin, 2008). The primary purpose of this new law was to convey meaning to restoring faith in corporate America’s financial endeavors (Orin, 2008). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was meant to aid and protect investors, who suffered extreme losses because of corporations having poor financial performances, which was the case before the law was enacted (Orin, 2008). Distinctively, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was meant to concentrate on accounting fraudulence by holding corporations accountable for disclosing accurate and reliable financial records. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was also meant to ensure corporate executive leadership acted ethically throughout daily business (Orin, 2008). Assess the Effectiveness of SOX Legislations Key Ethical Components of the SOX To efficiently and effectively implement the Sarbanes-Oxley Act corporations need to broaden their views and focus on the greater purpose of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Beasley and Hermanson (2009) believe to accomplish this corporate leadership need to focus on the following: • Value the purpose of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. • Comprehend the effect of fraudulence behavior. • Concentrate on ethical attitudes pertaining to rationalizing fraudulence behavior. • Making the Sarbanes Oxley Act the foundation to compliance to improve governance and control. • Investigate and implement enterprise risk management (para 5). Value...
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...A Primer on Sarbanes-Oxley By Doris Activity 7 MGT7019-8 NorthCentral University Abstract This paper identifies issues, activities and practices, in financial reporting by public companies that were sanctioned by the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation Act of 2002 (SOX). This act was passed with the intent to restore public confidence and increase transparency in financial reports of publicly held companies, due to the aftermath of the financial scandals that plagued companies such as Enron and Worldcom (Jennings, 2012). The problem to be investigated is the ethical issues that were legislated by SOX, the cost associated with the implementation of the new act on different stakeholders, and new governance practices required of public companies to insure compliance with the new act. Introduction SOX was implemented in 2002 as “an act to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws, and for other purposes” (Jennings, 2012, p. 212). This act focused primarily on the independence of auditors who are responsible for auditing public companies, the corporate responsibilities of Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Chief Financial Officer(CFO), the proper disclosure of financial statements, the conflict of interest between the parties involved, criminal fraud accountability of those involved, and the imposition of the penalty in case of violations. The Public Accounting oversight Board (PAOB) was then created...
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...A Primer on Sarbanes-Oxley By Steven Williams Activity 7 MGT7019-8 NorthCentral University Abstract This paper identifies issues, activities and practices,in financial reporting by public companies that were sanctioned by the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation Act of 2002 (SOX). This act was passed with the intent to restore public confidence and increase transparency in financial reports of publicly held companies, due to the aftermath of the financial scandals that plagued companies such as Enron and Worldcom (Jennings, 2012). The problem to be investigated is the ethical issues that were legislated by SOX, the cost associated with the implementation of the new act on different stakeholders, and new governance practices required of public companies to insure compliance with the new act. Introduction SOX was implemented in 2002 as “an act to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws, and for other purposes” (Jennings, 2012, p.212). This act focused primarily on the independence of auditors who are responsible for auditing public companies, the corporate responsibilities of Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Chief Financial Officer(CFO), the proper disclosure of financial statements, the conflict of interest between the parties involved, criminal fraud accountability of those involved, and the imposition of the penalty in case of violations. The Public Accounting oversight Board (PAOB) was...
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...A Primer on Sarbanes-Oxley This paper is an investigation of violations in finance according to Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) as related to ethics and those influenced by decisions from investment management. I assessed the financial and social business practices of different organizations and identified ethical issues within the businesses that impacted internal and external stakeholders. Research revealed issues and activities that should have been resolved voluntarily prior to SOX’s enactment to meet ethical considerations relative to social and financial performance and the organization’s reputation. Recommendations were made based on studies and scholarly articles implicating the best governance practices organizations should adopt to remain compliant with SOX. What is SOX? SOX was established in 2002 as an act to strengthen corporate governance and restore investor confidence. The most important conditional term was to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws and other purposes (Jennings, 2012, p. 212). Provisions under SOX affected organizations’ processes and changed how financial information was released to the public. The act highlights the importance of information system controls by requiring management and auditors to report on the effectiveness of internal controls over the financial reporting component of the organization’s management information systems (Li, Peters, Richardson & Weidenmier...
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...Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Bus 102 – Dr. Sean D. Jasso John Chi 12/9/2010 Table of Contents - Table of Contents Introduction History of the Act Implementation Impact on Business Policy Analysis Conclusion Appendix References pg. 1 pg. 2 pg. 3 pg. 4 pg. 7 pg. 9 pg. 11 pg. 12 pg. 14 1|P a ge Introduction Corporate Scandals are business scandals that initiate from the misstatement of financial reporting by executives of public companies who are the ones trusted to run these organizations. Corporate scandals are derived in many ways and these misrepresentations happen through overstating revenues and understating expenses, overstating assets and understating liabilities, and use of fictious and fraudulent transactions that gives a misleading impression of the company’s financial status. There were a few corporate scandals that took place in the last decade that forever changed investment policies in corporate America. The companies that are most commonly known for these scandals are Enron, Adelphia, and WorldCom. These companies had hidden their true financial status from creditors and shareholders until they were unable to meet the financial commitments which forced them reveal massive losses instead of the implicated earnings. The ultimate result cost investors billions of dollars when the share prices of the affected companies had collapsed. According to Hopwood, Leiner & Young (2002), pg. 130, “the public outcry from the corporate scandals were enormous...
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...bepress Legal Series Year Paper Enron and the Special Purpose Entity. Use or Abuse? The Real Problem - The Real Focus Neal F. Newman Texas Wesleyan Law School This working paper is hosted by The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress) and may not be commercially reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder. http://law.bepress.com/expresso/eps/1165 Copyright c 2006 by the author. Enron and the Special Purpose Entity. Use or Abuse? The Real Problem - The Real Focus Abstract In December of 2001, Enron Corporation filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code; one of the largest corporate bankruptcy filings at that time. When the investigations commenced and the tangled Enron web was unraveled, it was discovered that Enron had perpetrated a very sophisticated form of accounting fraud through its repeated use of what are referred to as Special Purpose Entities (“SPEs”). In their most basic forms, SPEs are business entities formed for the purpose of conducting a well specified activity such as construction of a gas pipeline, or collection of a specific group of accounts receivable. However, because of their complex nature, SPEs can be used to manipulate a corporation’s financial results, which was the primary use for which Enron employed the SPE structure. As a result, the investment and financial community has cast a dark cloud over the special purpose entity, depicting the SPE as an inherently evil structure whose only purpose is to...
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...ACCOUNTING THEORY (FAR 600) Teaching and Learning Arrangements (SEMESTER: SEPT 2013 – JAN. 2014) COURSE CODE : FAR 600 PROGRAM : BACHELOR OF ACCOUNTING (HONS) CREDIT HOURS : 3 CONTACT HOURS : 3 STATUS : CORE TEACHING LECTURER : Prof Dr Rohana Othman OFFICE & PHONE NO. : Room 419 (Off. Tel: 03-55444987) E-MAIL : rohana799@gmail.com SYNOPSIS This course is designed to further enhance the students’ understanding of the concepts and issues in accounting theory and practices. The course involves the study of the practical and theoretical issues involved in the development, implementation and changes in conceptual framework and regulatory framework. COURSE OUTCOME At the end of the course, students should be able to: 1. Discuss the various theories and paradigms in accounting. 2. Demonstrate an understanding on the concept of Islamic Accounting, the need for it and its differences to conventional accounting. 3. Evaluate the evolution of the conceptual framework and standard setting process, nationally and internationally. 4. Evaluate the relationship between accounting theories and framework to the practice in the real world. 5. Analyze the recognition, measurement and other current issues in financial reporting. COURSE OUTLINE |Week |Topic |Contact Hours |Learning...
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...| Corporate Governance2 CreditsBU.231.720.84 Days and time: Wednesdays. 9:00 am – 12:00 pmSpring 2, 2015 March 25 - May 13, 2015HE BaltimoreRoom #206 | Instructor Dr. Demir Yener Contact Information 1625 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington DC. Office: 206K. Phone Number: (202) 650-6022; E-mail Address: demir.yener@jhu.edu Office Hours Mondays 4:30 – 5:00 pm or by appointment Required Text and Learning Materials: 1) Monks, Robert A.G. and Nell Minow. Corporate Governance (5th Ed. ISBN 978-0-470-97259-5), Wiley-Blackwell, 2011 2) Yener, Demir. Corporate Governance Primer 3) Lecture notes on Corporate Governance by Dr. Yener. 4) Other cases and readings to be distributed through BlackBoard as required. (Please note: the latest edition of the textbook will be adopted if there is one available. Please check out our online bookstore for most updated textbook information http://bookstore.mbsdirect.net/jhu-carey.htm.). Please see other required and recommended readings in the class schedule. Blackboard Site A Blackboard course site is set up for this course. Each student is expected to check the site throughout the semester as Blackboard will be the primary venue for outside classroom communications between the instructors and the students. Students can access the course site at https://blackboard.jhu.edu. Support for Blackboard is available at 1-866-669-6138. Course Evaluation As a research and learning community, the Carey Business...
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...Before You Sue The Accountants Daniel J. Hurson Even if it looks like a strong case, be careful—there are some surprising defenses. IN THE WAKE OF the corporate accounting scandals that have dominated the business news for the last few years, as well as recurring announcements of large settlements in class action suits against major accounting firms, the prospect of a malpractice case against an accounting firm would at first glance seem attractive. Juries are presumably more predisposed to view accountants with renewed skepticism, when hardly a news cycle passes without some reference to accounting fraud, investigations, and the occasional large-scale debacles like the demise of Arthur Andersen, not to mention the high-profile criminal prosecutions that have recently gone to trial. Daniel J. Hurson, formerly Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel at the SEC, practices securities enforcement and accounting malpractice law in Washington, D.C. His website is www.hursonlaw.com. 25 26 The Practical Lawyer April 2006 Accountant malpractice litigation is a minefield of arcane judicial doctrines layered over pleading and discovery traps that can bury the best plaintiffs’ counsel. Indeed, among the players in these sagas, the accountants sometimes offer the best litigation target. The companies themselves have often tanked; the errant executives dismissed, awash in legal problems, and without insurance coverage; but the accountants (Andersen notwithstanding)...
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...Research Study Capital-Market Effects of Corporate Disclosures and Disclosure Regulation Christian Leuz Peter Wysocki June 26, 2006 Commissioned by the Task Force to Modernize Securities Legislation in Canada Christian Leuz Christian Leuz is currently the Professor of Accounting at the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business. He is also the David G. Booth Faculty Fellow. Prior to this position, Professor Leuz was the Harold Stott Term Assistant Professor in Accounting at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Fellow at Wharton’s Financial Institution Center. His research interests include transparency and corporate governance, financial disclosure and securities regulation, and the links between the institutions of market economies. Professor Leuz earned his doctoral degree and “Habilitation” at the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. His most recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Accounting and Economics and the Journal of Accounting Research. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Accounting and Economics and serves currently on the Editorial Board of The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting Research, the Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting, and the International Journal of Accounting. He has received several grants and honors, of which the Geewax Terker Prize is the latest. Peter Wysocki Professor Peter Wysocki is an associate professor of management at...
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...whether you should return the five dollars extra change the clerk gave you at the video store – or very broad – whether national security is more important than personal freedom. Whatever your moral conversations are about, it is likely there is a body of literature that would be useful in clarifying your thoughts on the issue. It may be a good idea for you to read a basic textbook on moral philosophy to review or familiarize yourself with the way philosophers have thought about some of the moral issues that almost everyone encounters. It is especially useful to be familiar with the terms and concepts of moral philosophy so you can express your views precisely and intelligently. Some of the major moral theories are briefly summarized in the Primer of Moral Theory that follows. You will find most of them are discussed in more detail in any basic moral philosophy text, although you may find them listed under slightly different titles. As you consider each theory, use the “Where Do I Stand” box to mark your position on it. Include a brief explanation of the reasons for your position. The purpose of this exercise is for you to decide for yourself what moral theories and standpoints make the most sense to you and to locate your own moral standpoint within the formal framework of established moral thought. As you continue thinking about moral theories, you may find that your standpoint changes. This is normal. Give yourself time to think reflectively and don’t be concerned if you have trouble...
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...The Role of Power in Financial Statement Fraud Schemes Chad Albrecht • Daniel Holland • Ricardo Malaguen˜o • Simon Dolan • Shay Tzafrir Received: 24 June 2011 / Accepted: 12 December 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Abstract In this paper, we investigate a large-scale financial statement fraud to better understand the process by which individuals are recruited to participate in financial statement fraud schemes. The case reveals that perpetrators often use power to recruit others to participate in fraudulent acts. To illustrate how power is used, we propose a model, based upon the classical French and Raven taxonomy of power, that explains how one individual influences another individual to participate in financial statement fraud. We also provide propositions for future research. Keywords Financial statement fraud Organizational corruption Recruitment Collusion Power and influence Introduction In recent years, fraud and other forms of unethical behavior in organizations have received significant attention in the business ethics literature (Uddin and Gillet 2002; Elias 2002; Rockness and Rockness 2005; Robison and Santore 2011), investment circles (Pujas 2003; Albrecht et al. 2011), and regulator communities (Farber 2005; Ferrell and Ferrell 2011). Scandals at Enron, WorldCom, Xerox, Quest, Tyco, HealthSouth, and other companies created a loss of confidence in the integrity of the American business (Carson 2003) and even...
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...CASE 1.1 Enron Corporation John and Mary Andersen immigrated to the United States from their native Norway in 1881. The young couple made their way to the small farming community of Plano, Illinois, some 40 miles southwest of downtown Chicago. Over the previous few decades, hundreds of Norwegian families had settled in Plano and surrounding communities. In fact, the aptly named Norway, Illinois, was located just a few miles away from the couple’s new hometown. In 1885, Arthur Edward Andersen was born. From an early age, the Andersens’ son had a fascination with numbers. Little did his parents realize that Arthur’s interest in numbers would become the driving force in his life. Less than one century after he was born, an accounting firm bearing Arthur Andersen’s name would become the world’s largest professional services organization with more than 1,000 partners and operations in dozens of countries scattered across the globe. Think Straight, Talk Straight Discipline, honesty, and a strong work ethic were three key traits that John and Mary Andersen instilled in their son. The Andersens also constantly impressed upon him the importance of obtaining an education. Unfortunately, Arthur’s parents did not survive to help him achieve that goal. Orphaned by the time he was a young teenager, Andersen was forced to take a fulltime job as a mail clerk and attend night classes to work his way through high school. After graduating from high school, Andersen attended the University...
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...Licensed to: iChapters User CASE 1.1 Enron Corporation John and Mary Andersen immigrated to the United States from their native Norway in 1881. The young couple made their way to the small farming community of Plano, Illinois, some 40 miles southwest of downtown Chicago. Over the previous few decades, hundreds of Norwegian families had settled in Plano and surrounding communities. In fact, the aptly named Norway, Illinois, was located just a few miles away from the couple’s new hometown. In 1885, Arthur Edward Andersen was born. From an early age, the Andersens’ son had a fascination with numbers. Little did his parents realize that Arthur’s interest in numbers would become the driving force in his life. Less than one century after he was born, an accounting firm bearing Arthur Andersen’s name would become the world’s largest professional services organization with more than 1,000 partners and operations in dozens of countries scattered across the globe. Think Straight, Talk Straight Discipline, honesty, and a strong work ethic were three key traits that John and Mary Andersen instilled in their son. The Andersens also constantly impressed upon him the importance of obtaining an education. Unfortunately, Arthur’s parents did not survive to help him achieve that goal. Orphaned by the time he was a young teenager, Andersen was forced to take a fulltime job as a mail clerk and attend night classes to work his way through high school. After graduating from high school,...
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