...Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Organizations are often led to gain profit by not always doing what is right or legal for that matter. Some may want to hide trails of misled numbers in auditing reports while others will look the other way so that the organization can make a couple dollars. Ensuring that the government holds those companies accountable for not following the law is essential so that we do not go through another financial crisis. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was one way the government intervened to help detour organizations from fraudulent behavior and acts. The article “Sarbanes-Oxley law discourages risk-taking, corporate growth” discusses the impact of the SOX act and business growth. Sarbanes-Oxley Law Discourages Risk-taking, Corporate Growth The article discussed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and how it limits the growth in business by making those businesses shy away from any risky undertakings. The act has made organizations more prone to do low-risk businesses and, as a result, has brought on more cost saving ways “such as job layoffs and outsourcing” (Mishra, 2011). Meaning that organizations are cutting out jobs and outsourcing a lot of the work to save on money so that they can still make a profit. The article discusses how due to the SOX act more directors are spending too much time trying to comply with the act than trying to make plans on how to be more profitable and gain more capital. It has not helped in solving issues of growth and profits...
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...Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Cost Benefit Analysis The Sarbanes Oxley Act was signed into law by President Bush in 2002. This Act was in direct response to the accounting scandals of the early 2000s. A time that I remember very well, because I’d just graduated from college into the accounting industry, and it was in a total uproar. The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) ordered a number of reforms to enhance corporate responsibility, financial disclosure, and to fight corporate and accounting fraud. This regulation also put financial as well as criminal pressure on the perpetrators, including the auditors. The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) was named after two of its main architects, Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley. The SOX Act is composed of eleven titles. They are: Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Auditor Independence, Corporate Responsibility, Enhanced Financial Disclosures, Analysis Conflicts of Interest, Commission Resources and Authority, Studies and Reports, Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability, White Collar Crime Penalty Enhancement, Corporate Tax Returns, and Corporate Fraud Accountability. This Act requires that top management assume responsibility for the financial records that are put out by the corporation. The have to sign off on the information before it is released. This is covered in Section 302. They are certifying that the report does not contain material untrue statements and that the statements provide a fair picture of the financial...
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...Sarbanes Oxley Act Article Review Amber Means LAW 421 November 24, 2014 Jane Schneider Sarbanes Oxley Act Article Review Corporate fraud and mismanagement scandals in publically held companies, along with the public outcry for stricter regulations and accountability in early 2000 led to the passing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX Act) of 2002. The primary purpose of the SOX Act is to overhaul the structure of corporate governance regulatory structure and impose stricter regulation and controls on the auditing, financial reporting and internal corporate governance procedures of corporations (Melvin, 2011). Significant portions of the Act are aimed towards creating solutions for specific failures in the auditing and accounting procedures of publically held companies. The Act also increased the jurisdiction, enforcement alternatives and enforcement budget of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) substantially (Melvin, 2011). The SOX Act of 2002 was implemented to effectively end corruption within publically held companies and restore the faith of investors in the corporate system, but how well is it working? The following is summary of the article “Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 (SOX) – 10 years later” which discusses the intentions of the SOX Act, the corruption and legislative environment which led to its implementation, and how its implementation has affected corporations and investors. History of legislation Prior to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002, the Securities...
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...ACC/291 01/30/2013 My individual paper is going to focus on unethical accounting practices and how the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is used in today's world to try and limit companies from falsifying accounting statements. One way that companies use unethical practices would be a practice known as cooking the books, this would involve a company falsifying information on their financial statements. There are numerous reasons why a company would do this but the number one reason that they do it is because they are having financial issues with their company and they don't want to go under or fill for bankruptcy or they are just doing it for greed. One way that the government is trying to limit the use of such practices is passing Acts like the one U.S. Congress passed in 2002 called the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, this act mandated that there be stricter reforms on companies so that they can improve their financial disclosures, and preventing cooking the books and preventing accounting fraud. This Act was passed after all the early scandals in the late 1990's and early 2000's such as Enron. This act was named after their main architects, Senator Paul Sarbanes, and Representative Michael Oxley and it is used to deter and punish corporate and accounting fraud and corruption. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has eleven titles, that all have to do with the company remaining in compliance with the Act. Another way that companies use unethical practices would be embezzlement, this could be performed by an...
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...Sarbanes-Oxley Act.2002 Darrell Kelley LAW/412 June 27,2013 Mark Reed Sarbanes-Oxley Act.2002 In this essay one will be discussing Enron, the illegal activity of Enron and the establishment of the Sarbanes-Oxley act 2002. Also one Discusses the ethical views in todays business world and the criminal penalties that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act provides Enron was an American energy business in commodities and services company based out of Houston, Texas. Enron was a rapid growing corporation that organization goal was in producing natural gases, communications, electricity, pulp and paper with was once believed to have had employed approximately over 18,000 employees (Frontain). With monopolizing in such resource ventures Enron was once believed to have made well over 100 hundred billion dollars in revenue. In the height of Enron’s success of banking in million of dollars through out their empire there were also faulty accounting be done internally. Thousand to millions of dollars being signed off to hire up E of the company leading to questioning of the money (Frontain), account scandals and audits. By the early 2000’s Enron was in over their head in fraudulent financial documents, having less than enough funds to payback what was owed, as well keeping employees on payroll Enron made the move of filing bankruptcy leaving whatever ethical, moral responsibility they have had abandoned. With Enron’s fraudulent financial secrets and bankruptcy being brought...
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...CRN # Group Research Project Sarbanes Oxley David, Eric, Jeff We have decided to analyze and research the managerial accounting theory of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. In this project we will describe how this act became in existence, the implementation of this act into major corporations, the organization problem that the act was developed to address, the specific pros and cons of this act, how companies have adjusted accounting process because of this act, and our position on the act. In analyzing and researching these different topics we will better understand the complexity and the specific foundations of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. As stated above we will first look at how the Sarbanes Oxley Act became in existence. The Sarbanes Oxley Act was passed into legislation in 2002 because of a series of corporate scandals. Some regard the Sarbanes Oxley Act as the most significant modification of securities regulation since the 1930’s. However, in the 1990’s, there were a number of amendments that significantly enlarged the regulatory powers of the Securities Exchange Commission. These acts were significant that led up to the implementation of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002. These regulations include the Penny Stock Reform Act of 1990, the Securities Acts Amendments of 1990, the Market Reform Act of 1990, and the National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996. All of these acts have helped shape and form the original Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002. For years since the original...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Accounting scandals grew increasingly in the early 2000’s. Due to these scandals Senator Paul Sarbanes and U.S. Representative Michael Oxley sponsored a bill that is now known as The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. They refer to this bill as the SOX act. The reason this law was passed was to help eliminate the fraudulent activity that was taking place within the companies that are traded publicly in the United States. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 holds those individuals accountable for unethical acts and behavior. This act makes it so that companies are now required to provide an accurate balance sheet that is deemed verifiable. Accounting practices of businesses are now more transparent and this is due to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. This act ensures all businesses have true and correct financial statements (Sox Law, 2006). Unethical practices and or behavior in accounting would be described as any act that knowingly is taking away from profitability of a business. The examples are as follows: falsely reporting financial statements, stealing, and inputting data incorrectly. In order to control the unethical behavior taking place in the workplace, companies can implement internal controls measures. These are checks and balances that will ensure accurate reporting of information. Many organizations utilize the internal controls system to ensure employee honesty. Internal controls also maintain productivity for their employees...
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...O'Farrell (2012), "'internal controls' can be defined as actions and procedures by which a company monitors itself". The two primary goals of internal controls are to safeguard assets from theft and unauthorized use, and to enhance the accuracy and reliability of company accounting records to avoid errors and irregularities in the accounting process. The establishment of responsibility, the use of physical, mechanical, and electronic controls, the segregation of duties, and the independent internal verification are internal control principles. Establishing responsibility is necessary to hold all employees responsible for the records reported. If a company successfully reports records inaccurately, the scandals that occurred in the early 2000s could be repeated. By holding employees, management, the board of directors, and auditors responsible, it helps control that documents and records are truthful when reported. This allows the shareholders' of the company to make the best financial decisions with the information given (Internal Control", 2012). The physical control of the company is established as a safeguard for records. This includes physical safeguards and IT Security. Physical safeguards is the "use of cameras, locks, physical barriers, etc. to protect property, such as merchandise inventory" ("Internal Control", 2012). With the use of IT Security, documents are "restricted to authorized personnel" through items such as employee ID cards, locks, and security codes...
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...The Sarbanes Oxley Act was signed into law by President Bush in 2002. This Act was in direct response to the accounting scandals of the early 2000s. A time that I remember very well, because I’d just graduated from college into the accounting industry, and it was in a total uproar. The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) ordered a number of reforms to enhance corporate responsibility, financial disclosure, and to fight corporate and accounting fraud. This regulation also put financial as well as criminal pressure on the perpetrators, including the auditors. The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) was named after two of its main architects, Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley. The SOX Act is composed of eleven titles. They are: Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Auditor Independence, Corporate Responsibility, Enhanced Financial Disclosures, Analysis Conflicts of Interest, Commission Resources and Authority, Studies and Reports, Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability, White Collar Crime Penalty Enhancement, Corporate Tax Returns, and Corporate Fraud Accountability. This Act requires that top management assume responsibility for the financial records that are put out by the corporation. The have to sign off on the information before it is released. This is covered in Section 302. They are certifying that the report does not contain material untrue statements and that the statements provide a fair picture of the financial condition of the organization. This Act also put...
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...What exactly is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act? Who does it protect? Who benefits from SOX most? I will discuss what the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) is its key components, and its primary objective. Also, I will discuss the criticisms surrounding the SOX act. Why it is important to enforce the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Finally, I will discuss if the SOX has achieved its goals. The main purpose of Sarbanes Oxley Act is to ensure that the corporate sector works with transparency and provides full disclosure of information as and when required (Bing, 2007). This basically means that corporations must keep good records of what goes on in their business, not just for their benefit, but just in case of an audit, then they’ll have all their transactions ready to be reviewed and to keep future corporate scandals down. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed by Congress on July 30, 2002. The law forced public companies to spend much more money having their books thoroughly audited, and it increased the penalties for executives who defrauded investors. Since the bill's passage and implementation, nervous investors who had yanked trillions of dollars from the market have returned (Farrell, 2007). The men behind the Sarbanes-Oxley Act consist of U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, New York Stock Exchange CEO John Thain and former AIG chief Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. Even though their voices my appear to be isolated, Charles Niemeier a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board...
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...What exactly is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act? Who does it protect? Who benefits from SOX most? I will discuss what the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) is its key components, and its primary objective. Also, I will discuss the criticisms surrounding the SOX act. Why it is important to enforce the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Finally, I will discuss if the SOX has achieved its goals. The main purpose of Sarbanes Oxley Act is to ensure that the corporate sector works with transparency and provides full disclosure of information as and when required (Bing, 2007). This basically means that corporations must keep good records of what goes on in their business, not just for their benefit, but just in case of an audit, then they’ll have all their transactions ready to be reviewed and to keep future corporate scandals down. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed by Congress on July 30, 2002. The law forced public companies to spend much more money having their books thoroughly audited, and it increased the penalties for executives who defrauded investors. Since the bill's passage and implementation, nervous investors who had yanked trillions of dollars from the market have returned (Farrell, 2007). The men behind the Sarbanes-Oxley Act consist of U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, New York Stock Exchange CEO John Thain and former AIG chief Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. Even though their voices my appear to be isolated, Charles Niemeier a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board...
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...Sarbanes-Oxley Law Stephanie Mosley ACC 340 University of Phoenix Richard Calabria 07/23/2012 To enhance the dependability and accountability in an effort to safeguard shareholders, the federal government for the United States of America established the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on July 30, 2002. The Public Company Accounting Reform and Protection Act of 2002 is also used to refer to this law. Numerous acts of corruption in the business sector continued throughout the late 1990s as well as early part of 2000 with no laws to prevent it. In response to the very public case of WorldCom and Enron fiscal scams, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (commonly called SOX) was passed to protect the public and investors from unfair practices and accounting mistakes (Rouse, 2007). In order to safeguard shareholders, the president at that time President George Bush pushed for the act to get passed by the Senate and House of Representatives. The law was immediately signed by the president after the law passed the Senate 99-0 and the House of Representative 423-3 (Bumgardner, 2003). Since the law passed, it has been viewed as the best measure since the Security and Exchange Law of 1934 to improve business accounting rules. This law deters businesses from deceiving their shareholders and stockholders and from deliberately committing fiscal scams. Companies must respond accordingly and administer corporate governing plans to prevent bogus activities. The Securities and Exchange Commission administers...
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...Sarbanes Oxley: An Antidote To Executive Greed? | May2011 | “Today I sign the most far-reaching reforms of American business practices since the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This new law sends very clear messages that all concerned must heed. This law says to every dishonest corporate leader: you will be exposed and punished; the era of low standards and false profits is over; no boardroom in America is above or beyond the law”- George W. Bush | | INTRODUCTION Since the initial separation of corporate ownership from corporate management, the abuse of power by management has been a concern. Early in the last century a small number of Industrialists owned and controlled the major corporations. Slowly, as these individuals aged and retired, their vast holdings were transferred to a large number of decedents who were, for the most part, disinterested in managing the firms in which they held an ownership share. The shareholders relied on experienced managers to direct their corporations. This transfer of power gave rise to agency problems wherein the agent of the organization (manager) is likely to place their own interest above those of the actual owners of the firm. There is a vast body of literature addressing the issues of agency problems and clearly defined Agency Theory to which the majority of scholars subscribe (Van Ness, Miesing, and Kang, 2009) The original attempt to create an antidote to agency problems was the formation of corporate boards of directors...
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...University of Phoenix Material Article Review Format Guide MEMORANDUM UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX DATE: November 25, 2013 TO: XXX FROM: XXX RE: Impact of Sarbanes-Oxley Act upon management: a behavioral discussion. (Linsley, C., & Linsley, C., 2008) ARTICLE SYNOPSIS The authors of this article had a desire to examine the behavioral psychological affects on senior management staff members after the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The behavior changes could affect future legislation that regulates the financial community and how it is perceived and applied. Linsey, C. and Linsey, C. (2008), suggest that it would be useful to further understand how legislation affects people in order to predict behavior changes affected by future legislation and regulation. Linsey, C. and Linsey C. (2008), conducted a very thorough investigation into the SOA effects on senior management, using the work of psychologists Tversky and Kahneman, (Linsey, C. and Linsey, C., 2008) to arrive at their conclusion that behavior of senior management was indeed affection by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. They saw that the Act could have could be seen in a negative light by management due to assumption and bias in their established thinking. One thing that I particularly interesting about the article, is that the authors noted what they considered to be the managerial reaction to the SOA. They believed that the new regulations would magnify managements discernment...
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...RBOX Reflection Paper on The Sarbanes-Oxley Act I. Introduction The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Sarbox or SOX), also known as 'The Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act' in the US Senate, was enacted on July 30, 2002. This law was co-authored/sponsored by US Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-Maryland) and US Congressman Michael Oxley (R-Ohio). The act contains 11 sections with various requirements ranging from additional corporate board responsibilities to criminal penalties, and empowers the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to implement rulings that comply with the said act/law. The objective of this law was two-fold: 1) to restore the public confidence in public accounting, auditing and public securities trading 2) to assure ethical business practices by demanding executive awareness and accountability. But why and how did this law come to fruition? What events prompted these U.S. lawmakers to pass this bill in the first place? This bill was enacted as a reaction to a number of major corporate and accounting debacles (or accounting scandals). Some of those corporate accounting scandals involve companies such as Tyco International, Adelphia, Peregrine Systems and WorldCom. These scandals, which cost investors billions of dollars when the share prices of these affected companies collapsed and shook public confidence in the US securities markets. To better understand SOX, it is best to understand the first company that found itself in that accounting...
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