...September 28 The SOX which is the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2202 made an outstanding shift in the environment that was regulatory of companies that was publically traded. The number grew of corporate scandals that was fraud, such as Tyco and Enron of the United States decided to pass a law to lower the future of probability fraud. The law in the United States requires a financial report that is more comprehensive and it have requirements. The law also have penalties that is stricter on the people who do schemes to throw the investors off. I will use the article name “The Law Changed Corporate America”, by Michael Peregrine, which will identify the law and its major effects. Michael Peregrine believed in the SOX. He felt like it would be very successful. The corporate governance structure was the effect that was explained in this article. This structure was very important. He states that the center of direction which was corporate, from the office in the corner and returned it where it was at in the boardroom. This article also verifies that the SOX had created a “balances and checks” system for the governance corporate. The board of directors had to approve certain actions that the executives had to approve certain actions that the executives wanted to make and the executives had to approve the certain actions the board of directors wanted to make. The executive management team and the board of directors is unlikely to work together to commit fraud. Ethical decision...
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...disclosure and corporate governance legislation since the Securities Act of1933 (the Securities Act) and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act). Furthermore, the provisions of the Act are momentous enough that it is considered by many to be the most significant change to the federal securities laws in the U.S. since the New Deal. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 The Act & Impact The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was signed into law following the wake of corporate financial scandals. Many large companies such as Enron, WorldCom, and Arthur Anderson were affected. The Act provides a solid set of government rules that are aimed to discourage and punish corporate and accounting fraud, as well as corruption. SOX is designed to carry out these tasks by imposing severe penalties for wrong doings, while protecting the interest of workers and shareholders. The stated purposed to protect investors is maintained by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures, imposing strict rules for audits and auditors of publically traded companies, preventing insider trading and deals, requiring companies to adopt strict internal controls, and increasing the penalties for white collar crimes as they relate to investor fraud. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is often best understood, not as a piece of legislation centered on a new concept of regulation, but as a process which mandated that many major reforms be implemented as soon as possible. SOX became effective...
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...January, 2009 SOX and its effects on IT Security Governance Rosslin John Robles1, Min-kyu Choi1, Sung-Eon Cho2, Yang-seon Lee2, Tai-hoon Kim 1 School of Multimedia, Hannam University, Daejeon, Korea 2 Dept of Information Communication, Sunchon Univerity, Sunchon, Korea 3 Fumate Inc., Daejeon, Korea rosslin_john@yahoo.com, secho@sunchon.ac.kr, yslee@fumate.com, taihoonn@empal.com Abstract The Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act is a United States federal law enacted on July 30, 2002 in response to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals including those affecting Enron, Tyco International, Adelphia, Peregrine Systems and WorldCom. This paper discusses the effects of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act on corporate information security governance practices. The resultant regulatory intervention forces a company to revisit its internal control structures and asses the nature and scope of its compliance with the law. This paper reviews the implications emerging from the mandatory compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act. Issues related to IT governance and the general integrity of the enterprise are also identified and discussed. Industry internal control assessment frameworks, such as COSO and COBIT, are reviewed and their usefulness in ensuring compliance evaluated. 1. Introduction Accounting scandals at some of the big corporations like Enron, HealthSouth, Tyco and WorldCom had a devastating impact on investor confidence. Clearly, it was possible to engage in frauds of such magnitude...
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...3 Why was SOX established? 4 When did SOX take effect? 5 What companies were affected and how? 6 What does SOX compliance require? 9 Conclusion 11 References 13 What is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002? The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 – its official name being “Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002” – is recognized to be the most significant U.S. federal disclosure and corporate governance legislation since the Securities Act of 1933 (the Securities Act) and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act), and, the provisions of the Act are significant enough that it is considered by many to be the most significant change to federal securities laws in the U.S. since the New Deal. It is best understood, however, not as a piece of legislation centered on a new concept of regulation, but as a process which mandated that many major reforms be implemented as soon as possible (in some cases, within 30 days) on the precise schedule specified by Congress. In that sense, the Enron and WorldCom debacles provided the impetus of public outrage that forced into effect some of the most readily available reform proposals for publicly traded companies, many of which had existed for years without sufficient political imperative to be enacted.[1] The Act provides for new levels of auditor independence; personal accountability for CEOs and CFOs; additional accountability for corporate Boards; increased...
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...MAIN ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT (SOX) OF 2002 When the US Congress hurriedly passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, it had in mind combating fraud, improving the reliability of financial reporting, and restoring investor confidence. Perhaps SOX's most burdensome element was Section 404, which says that it is management's responsibility to maintain a sound internal control structure for financial reporting and to assess its effectiveness; and that it is the auditors' responsibility to attest to the soundness of management's assessment and report on the state of the overall financial control system. (Wagmer & Dittmar, 2006) “The apparent motivation for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was to combat the financial statement fraud problem that continues to plague the United States, as embodied by Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, and too many others. Simply stated, Sarbanes-Oxley takes direct aim at the perceived drivers of fraud by attempting to strengthen board and audit committee oversight, increase auditor vigilance and independence, strengthen internal controls and risk management, and create accounting fraud penalties with a significant deterrent effect “(Boatright, 2004). THE UPSIDE OF SARBANES-OXLEY/ADVANTAGES In the Business and Professional Ethical journal, (Gorman, 2009) discusses the Advantages of the SOX Act below * Reduces disclosure process cost, enhance the productivity of internal controls management and increases investor confidence...
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...FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOLS OF BUSINESS CEO-Director Connections and Corporate Fraud N.K. Chidambaran Simi Kedia Nagpurnanand R. Prabhala Working Paper 2010-009 Copyright © 2010 by N.K. Chidambaran, Simi Kedia, and Nagpurnanand R. Prabhala Working papers are in draft form. This working paper is distributed for purposes of comment and discussion only. It may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holders. Copies of working papers are available from the authors. Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1681472 CEO-Director Connections and Corporate Fraud∗ N. K. Chidambaran Simi Kedia Nagpurnanand R. Prabhala This Version: September 2010 JEL Classification: G30, G32, G34, G38 Chidambaran is at Fordham University (chidambaran@fordham.edu), Kedia is at Rutgers University (kedia@busness.rutgers.edu), and Prabhala is at the University of Maryland (prabhala@umd.edu). We thank Jonathan Karpoff and Jerry Martin for graciously sharing their data on frauds with us. We thank Benjamin Cole, Eli Fich, Shane Johnson, Lalitha Naveen, Howard Tuckman, Antoinette Schoar, Vijaya Venkatramani, Adam Yore, and seminar participants at Fordham University, London Business School, and 2010 Summer Research Conference at ISB for their comments. All errors remain ours. Chidambaran acknowledges support from a Fordham University Faculty Research Grant, Kedia acknowledges support from the Whitcomb Center, and Prabhala acknowledges support from the Center...
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...summarizes accounting fraud in the United States. I explain why each aspect of communication skills and report writing is vital to an accountant’s professional career. | Table of Contents I. Executive Summary 1 II. Introduction 1 III. Review of Literature 1 IV. Analysis 1 V. Recommendations 1 VI. Summary and Conclusions 1 VII. Appendix x 1 VIII. References 1 I. Executive Summary Accounting fraud is the deliberate manipulation of accounting records in order to make an organization's financial performance or condition seem better than it actually is. There are many examples of accounting fraud. * Merging short and long term debt into one amount for improving the perceived liquidity of the organization or a company. * Failing to disclose the risky investments or creative accounting practices. * Over-recording the sales revenue. * Under-recording expenses i.e. depreciation of expenses. From Enron, WorldCom and HealthSouth, it appears that accounting fraud is a major problem that is increasing in frequency and severity. research evidence has shown that a growing number of frauds have undermined the integrity of financial reports, contributed to substantial economic loses, and destroyed investors' confidence regarding the reliability of financial statements. The increasing rate of white-collar crimes demands stiff penalties and strong punishments. II. Introduction New laws and guidelines have helped reduce, but not eliminate fraud. Enron, WorldCom...
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...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 in the world, SOX would be marketed as the antidote to the epidemic of corporate corruption; that is until the...
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...Coates article, “The goals and the promises of Sarbanes-Oxley Act”. On July 25, 2002 the date when stock market indices were making a new history against over publicized corporate scandals, bankruptcy and accounting misstatements, the new legislation “The Public Committee Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002” widely known as Sarbanes Oxley Act was passed by the congress in response to investment company abuses. On the article, “The goals and the promises of Sarbanes-Oxley Act”; John C. Coates, professor of Harvard law & economics school analyzed the pre and post Sarbanes Oxley era and the pros and cons of the SOX legislation. In addition, he recommended that by reconstituting governance and accountability of PCAOB, implication of Sarbanes Oxley can be more effective to safeguard net long term socioeconomic market gain. While discussing about the enforcement in pre Sarbanes Oxley era, Coates pointed out the previous laws and regulations lacked effective implementation of corporate governance. With the threat of systematic corporate misstatements, frauds and rise in significant class action suits, in the pre SOX era investors’ confidence were dramatically declining. As in such scenarios in last decade, Coats describe the core goals on which SOX were formed. First, on its core, “SOX legislation was designed to fix the auditing of U.S public companies.” Second, Sarbanes Oxley was predominantly designed to regulate the “deprofessionalization” of auditors...
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...want your money protected? Would you be skeptical about investing in companies since the securities fraud scandals that have happened recently? The answer is most likely, “yes”, to a certain degree. With the news about unethical business practices and companies not following regulatory guidelines, it is difficult to ignore the risk that is involved with trusting someone else with your investment. But there is an answer to help protect companies and shareholder, and it comes in the form of a regulatory organization that was put in place in 2002. That was put in place as a direct response to the corporate scandals of Enron and other scandals that followed, and was also put in place to help restore confidence in the financial market. SOX-Applies only to US companies on the US exchange, and is an Act put in place in 2002 to mandate all publicly traded corporations to maintain adequate internal control. SOX basically make sure that all US publicly traded corporation do what is in the best interest to protect the investment of stockholders. SOX-Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is an ACT that was put in place where all publicly traded U.S. corporations are required to follow certain guidelines and requirements. Basically, these systems were put in place because of securities fraud issues that came to light in the early 2000’s, and are put in place to help minimize and eliminate fraud, to ensure accurate record keeping and reporting as well as to protect investors (Kimmel, Paul D. (2011-06-28)...
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...Sarbanes–Oxley, Sarbox or SOX, is a United States federal law which was introduced in 2002. It is also known as the “Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act” and “and 'Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act”. The main objective of the act is to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures. New aspects are created by SOX act for corporate accountability as well as new penalties for wrong doings. It was basically introduced after major corporate and accounting scandals including the scandals of Enron, WorldCom etc so that the same kind of scandals do not repeat again. There are 11 titles on the act. Each title consists of several sections. The Securities and Exchange Commission needs to implement rulings on the requirements to comply with the law. These major elements are- 1. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board: This title establishes the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. It provides specific processes and procedures for compliance audits, policies for control purposes. Basically it provides an oversight of public accounting firms that do auditing. 2. Auditor Independence: It provides standards for external auditor independence, so that conflicts of interest can be minimized. It also mentions the requirements for appointing new auditor and auditor reporting requirements. Auditing companies are prohibited from providing non-audit services (consulting) for the clients for...
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...pertaining to corporate governance, auditor independence, internal control assessment, and enhanced financial disclosure. It also sets several deadlines for compliance. This piece of legislation is named after its two major contributors that of Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley. The act arrangement is under eleven section or titles; however, some of the sections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 are considered to be more important than others, mainly 302, 401, 404, 409, 802 and 906 (full act available on-line at http://www.law.uc.edu/CCL/SOact/toc.html). SOX was a swift reaction to public outcry following corporate scandals, Congress imposed new obligations on directors, executives, lawyers, accountants, and many other entities. Many argue that this was done without due consideration to the Act's possibly adverse effects. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was introduced following a number of court cases of fraud and mismanaging of financial statements by major corporations (e.g., Enron and others). It was deemed necessary because it was quite obvious from the growing number of corporate scandals and resultant public outrage that the corporate world needed more oversight as more and more questionable corporate acts and financial manipulations took center stage in the media and the courts. This means that the quick response of Congress-and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was created mainly to bolster the public's confidence in corporate governance and...
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...Effective in 2006, all publicly-traded companies are required to submit an annual report of the effectiveness of their internal accounting controls to the SEC. It came as a result of the large corporate financial scandals involving Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing and Arthur Andersen. Provisions of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) detail criminal and civil penalties for noncompliance, certification of internal auditing, and increased financial disclosure. It affects public U.S. companies and non-U.S. companies with a U.S. presence. SOX is all about corporate governance and financial disclosure. High-profile business failures culminating in a media fixation on Enron called into question the effectiveness of business’ self-regulatory process as well as the effectiveness of the audit to uphold public trust in capital markets. Legislation to address shortcomings in financial reporting was slowly progressing in Congress. The sudden collapse of WorldCom guaranteed swift congressional action. President Bush signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in to Law on July 22, 2002. The most significant legislation affecting the accounting profession since 1933. Developing meaningful reforms that protect the public interest and restore confidence in the accounting profession is the primary focus of the SOX legislation. The SEC labored long and hard to communicate to the media, the public and to CPAs (Certified Public Accountant) that it will not tolerate any substandard work that veers away from the...
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...Sarbanes–Oxley, Sarbox or SOX, is a United States federal law which was introduced in 2002. It is also known as the “Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act” and “and 'Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act”. The main objective of the act is to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures. New aspects are created by SOX act for corporate accountability as well as new penalties for wrong doings. It was basically introduced after major corporate and accounting scandals including the scandals of Enron, WorldCom etc so that the same kind of scandals do not repeat again. There are 11 titles on the act. Each title consists of several sections. The Securities and Exchange Commission needs to implement rulings on the requirements to comply with the law. These major elements are- 1. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board: This title establishes the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. It provides specific processes and procedures for compliance audits, policies for control purposes. Basically it provides an oversight of public accounting firms that do auditing. 2. Auditor Independence: It provides standards for external auditor independence, so that conflicts of interest can be minimized. It also mentions the requirements for appointing new auditor and auditor reporting requirements. Auditing companies are prohibited from providing non-audit services (consulting) for the clients for...
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...Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was enacted on July 30th, 2002. The bill is comprised of eleven different sections that cover quite a large amount of topics. Prior to the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, there were several highly controversial and heavily scrutinized cases of corporate fraud that included the infamous Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom. These scandals cost investors billions of dollars when the share prices of these companies collapsed after the cases were filed. These cases of fraud indicated to both the public and the government that there was not enough regulation over financial statements of publically traded companies specifically. It focused specifically on publically traded companies to contain the fallout of lost investor’s money when these frauds come to light and the stock prices plummet. In order to fix these problems Congress rushed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act through both the House and Senate. This Act was one of the largest pieces of financial information legislation since the securities acts of 1933 and 1934 (Sweeney 2012). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has faced quite a lot of criticism, but it has been quite successful. SOX legislation has for most come at rather high regulatory costs. The average annual compliance costs were $2.9 million prior to 2007 and $2.3 million since then (Singer & You 2011, pg 557). While it’s completely understandable why that large of a bill would draw criticism, SOX has been incredibly successful at preventing large-scale cases of fraud like Enron...
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