...Effects of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Effects of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Sarbanes Oxley Act was established in 2002, mandating organizations large or small to follow. “The Sarbanes Oxley Act has introduced major changes to the regulation of financial practice and corporate governance” (Sarbanes-Oxley Essential Information, 2012). The act has also changed the way financial statements have to be reported. In a Post Sarbanes Oxley Era companies need to adapt to become more relational to stay successful. The Sarbanes Oxley Act has changed the reporting of financial statements by making organizations include an internal control report. The reason for this report is for the purpose of “showing that not only the company’s financial data is accurate, but that the company has confidence in them because adequate controls are in place to safeguard financial data” (Sarbanes-Oxley Essential Information, 2012). Also at the year-end financial reports need to have an assessment of how effective the internal controls are in which the issuer’s auditing firm attest to the assessment. This happens after the auditing firm reviews the “controls, policies, and procedures during a Section 40/40 audit, which is conducted with a traditional financial audit” (Sarbanes-Oxley Essential Information, 2012). For firms to become more relational in a Post Sarbanes Oxley Era, they need to redefine the roles of each audit professional and retrain their employees to incorporate...
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...Impact of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis ACC/291 Principles of Accounting II September 18, 2012 Thomas House Impact of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Reporting financial statements within a business or company is more than a must; it is a necessity to keep ones business up and running. If one were to report false information on any kind of financial statements it then could be costly for the company or business. This is known as unethical behavior in accounting. The unethical behavior in accounting would be to mislead financial analysis for personal gain, misuse of funds, overstating revenue, overstating the value of corporate assets, or even underreporting the existence of liabilities. The purpose of the Sarbanes-Oxley act is to, “Protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws, and for other purposes.” ("Sarbanes-Oxley Essential Information", 2003-2012). The Sarbanes-Oxley act was named after senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley. Sarbanes and Oxley drafted the Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002; both wanted to make sure that any business or corporation would be held accountable for wrongdoings. Enron would be sure to be held accountable. Enron Corporation Enron Corporation was an American energy company located in Houston, Texas. Enron employed nearly 21,000 people and was one of the world’s leading electricity, natural gas, pulp and paper...
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...ACC 291 WEEK 5 INDIVIDUAL EFFECT OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR ARTICLE ANALYSIS To purchase this visit here: http://www.nerdypupil.com/product/acc-291-week-5-individual-effect-of-unethical-behavior-article-analysis/ Contact us at: nerdypupil@gmail.com ACC 291 WEEK 5 INDIVIDUAL EFFECT OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR ARTICLE ANALYSIS Write a 350- to 700-word article analysis in which you identify situations that might lead to unethical practices and behavior in accounting. Examine the effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on financial statements. Cite one article from the Electronic Reserve Readings, the Internet, or other resources. Formatyour paper consistent with APA guidelines. Home Work Hour aims to provide quality study notes and tutorials to the students of ACC 291 Week 5 Individual Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis in order to ace their studies. ACC 291 WEEK 5 INDIVIDUAL EFFECT OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR ARTICLE ANALYSIS To purchase this visit here: http://www.nerdypupil.com/product/acc-291-week-5-individual-effect-of-unethical-behavior-article-analysis/ Contact us at: nerdypupil@gmail.com ACC 291 WEEK 5 INDIVIDUAL EFFECT OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR ARTICLE ANALYSIS Write a 350- to 700-word article analysis in which you identify situations that might lead to unethical practices and behavior in accounting. Examine the effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on financial statements. Cite one article from the Electronic Reserve Readings, the Internet, or other resources...
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...Behavior Article Analysis University of Phoenix Principles of Accounting 2 ACC/291 May 27, 2012 Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis In this paper I will identify situations that might lead to unethical practices and behavior in accounting. I will also examine the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on financial statements. Since the Enron scandal at the end of 2001 there have been several reports of unethical practices as well as poor behavior. So what exactly leads someone to report false information? In most cases that I have seen it usually begins with minor accounting infractions. When companies don’t perform well financially, stock holders may lose millions of dollars on their investments. The person in charge may decide to falsify the figures when reporting them to insure their position within their company. I believe the feel they can correct the numbers before anyone would notice. On the other hand, some CEO’s and financial officers are make bonuses and profits when they show how well a company is doing. Their own personal greed is the only thing that concerns them no matter how well the company is doing. It might be several top executives involved to just a couple of individuals, however the people who pay for their unethical decisions are the stock holders, employees and the public. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted July 29, 2002 and was named after U. S. Senator Paul Sarbanes and U. S. Representative Michael G. Oxley. According...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis There are many types of unethical behavior that can occur within organizations: forging financial information for personal gain, overstating assets or revenue, misstating expenses, and not including liabilities, to name a few. For these reasons and more, Congress enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley of 2002. Effect on Financial Statements The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or SOX Act, is known mainly for Section 404, which outlines three issues that summarize the reason the SOX Act exists. First, it requires that management create reliable internal financial controls; second, it requires that management attest to the reliability of those controls and the accuracy of the financial statements that result from these controls; and last, it requires an independent auditor to further attest to the statements made by management (The Sarbanes-Oxley, 2005). These measures ensure that organizations use the same rules and regulations to report financial information while making higher ups responsible for the information reported. At this time, CEOs came to at the forefront of financial dealings within the company instead of staying behind the scenes; the SOX established the boards of directors to oversee CEO dealings while making the audit committee oversee the dealings of the board of directors. This, however, proved costly for many companies because of the extra workforce and IT systems...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis ACC/291 This paper will analysis different situations that might lead to unethical practices and behavior in accounting. This paper will also examine the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on financial statements. Accounting could be described as a type of instrument or dialectal put in order to provide information with regards to the financial position of an organization or business. This type of information is very important to investors as it gives them important and detailed information that could turn out to be the determining factor as to their decisions to invest or not to invest in a specific organization. Consequently, it is not unusual to find unethical behavior in accounting as unethical practices come in different practices. Different situations that might lead to unethical practices in accounting could include misrepresentative financial analysis in order to obtain personal gains, mismanagement of funds, embellishing revenue, purposely providing wrong information in regards to expenses, embellishing the value of corporate assets, purposely providing wrong information in regards to liabilities, bribery, manipulation of financial markets, and lastly inside trading. According to Osanyin 2008 “Two well-known examples of unethical practices in accounting are those of the 2002 Enron / Andersen and the WorldCom scandal. Both of these companies were involved in unethical accounting practices.” Although Enron...
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...The Impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on Corporate America In discussing the impact of one of the most important laws passed in Congress to legislate the accounting and reporting rules of corporations, I need to give a brief definition and some background information for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed into law by the United States Congress. After a series of high profile corporate scandals, such as Enron and WorldCom, the Congress of the United States passed this legislation “to improve and maintain investor confidence. The law requires companies to have more independent board directors (not just company insiders), to adhere strictly to accounting rules, and to have senior managers personally sign off on financial results.” (Bateman, 173). Before the fall of corporations like Enron and WorldCom, there was also far too much corporate fraud during the Internet bubble. According to Stanley Block and his co-authors, “The major accounting firms had failed to detect fraud in their accounting audits, and outside directors were often not provided with the kind of information that would allow them to detect fraud and mismanagement.” (Block, 12). What is the definition, in a nutshell, of the Sabarnes-Oxley Act? This is something that needs to be defined and understood before examining the positive and negative impacts of this law upon corporate America. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act “establishes strict accounting and reporting rules in order to make senior...
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...Running head: IMPACT OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR ARTICLE ANALYSIS Impact of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Donna Sutton University of Phoenix Financial Accounting II ACCT 363 VERN May 09, 2010 Impact of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis The impact of the financial crisis created by such companies as Enron gave a reason for Congress to address some of the unethical practices of accountants. The American public no longer trusted accountants after losing retirements and life savings after making investments in companies that were reporting false financial statements. President George Bush signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act into law in 2002 to try to avert any future dealings of an unethical nature (Dummies.com) The Sarbanes Oxley Act states that companies must enact internal controls to counteract fraud, deceit and wrong doing by its auditors, CEO’s, financial personnel, and accountants when reporting the financial statements for their companies. CEO’s can no longer say they were unaware of deceitful financial statements. They will be held responsible for the company’s financials and also be penalized. This act will prevent companies from reporting inaccurate financial statements to the public and allow Americans to make informed investment decisions from accurate financial statements. Confidentiality is a huge concern for clients of companies. This issue was addressed in Ruling 112. A client is now given the choice of sharing their information with other companies...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis ACC/291-Principles of Accounting II June 24, 2013 Dale Wilson Having the correct accounting information in a financial statement gives a business owner certain advantages, such as information on financial transactions. If a business owner has information on when the sales or expenses are increasing or decreasing, he can make decisions that can benefit the company’s bottom line. The same cannot be true if he does not have accurate, or reliable, accounting information. There are also times when having accurate accounting information can lead to unethical practices in accounting because the information in the financial statement may not be beneficial for the business or the shareholders. Such instances made it necessary for the government to enact legislation that makes such practices illegal. There are many situations that might lead to unethical practices and behavior in accounting. Misuse of funds, insider trading, bribery and providing misleading financial information for personal gain are all examples of how businesses participate in unethical practices and behavior in accounting, all of which can lead to the inclusion of incorrect information in a financial statement. Prior to 2002, investors had no protection against corporations that failed to fully disclose financial information. This led to some of the biggest corporate fraud cases, involving companies like Enron and WorldCom. In 2002, because of the unethical practices...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Damon Jones ACC/291 December 11 2013 Harri Eloranta Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis The purpose of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is to restore public confidence in both public accounting and publicly traded securities as well as promote better ethical business practices through greater executive awareness and accountability (Siegel, Franz, & O'Shaughnessy, 2010). In the 1990s, many big companies had misleading and outright fraudulent activity on their account financial statements. Essentially, multiple publicly traded companies jacked up their stock prices by “publishing false or deceptive financial statements” according to (Lasher, 2008). The word ethics has many different means to different individuals or groups; however, ethic is a moral principle or set of moral values held by an individual or group (Dictionary.reference, 2013). Unethical behavior forms from an individual’s personal gain or a business trying to make the business look more profitable than it is. One way that companies mislead investors, by using their own accountant doing the books. When an accountant that works for the company does their books without anyone outside of that company overseeing them, gives them a lot of room to move figures around. The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 is an overseer and protector for investors. The Act has many effects of interest to financial service professionals. It increases the reliability...
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...of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Many occupations have the potential for unethical behavior in the workplace. The accounting profession specifically can have an enormous impact on an organization. In many cases this impact can affect other companies and even the general public. Unethical behaviors in the accounting industry are often difficult to detect. Some of the more common items include understating or not reporting liabilities, exaggerating income or other revenue, understating operating or other expenses, and exaggerating assets. These behaviors also include kickbacks, insider trading, embezzlement, and bribery. With individuals, the most common items are misuse of funds and providing misleading information on financial reports for personal gain. Many of the issues we face with the current economy are blamed on the unethical behavior in the accounting industry. Two of the most famous companies that were eventually caught and prosecuted for unethical accounting behaviors were WorldCom and Enron. The falsification of financial statements and fraudulent activity in the stock market causes thousands of public investors to lose money. During these scandals, some of the people inside the companies were earning millions of dollars at the expense of others. The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 or commonly referred to as Sox is named after Senator Paul Sarbanes and the Representative Michael Oxley. Sox was introduced...
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...Word Article Analysis Unethical Practices in Accounting ACC/291 Principles of Accounting 2 Michaele Musters Instructor: Word Article Analysis of Unethical Practices in Accounting Ethical Practices and conducts maybe taken or act different by everyone, thus many times to identify unethical practices and behaviors, we have to see who is in control. It is essential to analyze what can be done, or thought what might be done against legally acceptable accounting principles and conducts. The Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002, was enacted by The United States Congress to protect investors from fraudulent accounting practices, made by fraudulent executives in corporations. After the Scandal, the entire accounting world changed in many ways, that it created a new vision and ways of work. It sort of created a world of winds of anxiety for corporate executives and accountants. In the Sarbanes-Oxley act , there is a section call 302 that requires management to certify the accuracy of the reported financial statement. Then all corporations were forced to reform strictly to improve financial disclosures to prevent accounting frauds. After the Act, management introduced internal control in order to comply with all the Sarbanes-Oxley act requires for a corporations behavior. Today, all corporations are obligated to certify the company’s financial reports. They are also responsible and they must take full responsibility if there is a misleading, or fake accounting information...
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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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...The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Abstract This paper addresses financial analysis standards legislated in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). The focus will be on how the legislation enhanced the role of auditing and auditing firms, the impact of whistleblower legislation, and the recent Supreme Court decision. The paper attempts to show that though there continues to be opposition to SOX’s financial reform legislation, there is a case to be made in support of SOX. The research relies on historical data, such as the Enron scandal, and the recent decision by the United States Supreme Court decision that deems SOX as constitutional, to support that legislation is a necessary requirement in today’s global corporate environment, in which some of the largest corporations have proven that, left to their own devices, they will gravitate toward corporate malfeasance. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: WorldCom. Enron. Adelphia. Global Crossing. What do all these companies have in common? They will always be synonymous with the following: financial fraud, corporate malfeasance, internal corruption, and the reason behind the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). Not since the Crash of 1929 and the subsequent passage of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Bumgardner, 2003, para. 2), had the country seen such a push for financial reform. Triggered by investigations into corporate fraud by some of the largest and most successful corporations...
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...Word Article Analysis Unethical Practices in Accounting ACC/291 Principles of Accounting 2 Michaele Musters Instructor: Word Article Analysis of Unethical Practices in Accounting Ethical Practices and conducts maybe taken or act different by everyone, thus many times to identify unethical practices and behaviors, we have to see who is in control. It is essential to analyze what can be done, or thought what might be done against legally acceptable accounting principles and conducts. The Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002, was enacted by The United States Congress to protect investors from fraudulent accounting practices, made by fraudulent executives in corporations. After the Scandal, the entire accounting world changed in many ways, that it created a new vision and ways of work. It sort of created a world of winds of anxiety for corporate executives and accountants. In the Sarbanes-Oxley act , there is a section call 302 that requires management to certify the accuracy of the reported financial statement. Then all corporations were forced to reform strictly to improve financial disclosures to prevent accounting frauds. After the Act, management introduced internal control in order to comply with all the Sarbanes-Oxley act requires for a corporations behavior. Today, all corporations are obligated to certify the company’s financial reports. They are also responsible and they must take full responsibility if there is a misleading, or fake accounting information...
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