...was thought to be highly profitable. When the S.E.C ordered an investigation against the multi-billion dollar energy company and found that Enron was falsifying documents and not honestly reporting it’s annually earnings, the company quickly went bottom-side up and took everything away from its employees and investors. Amidst the Enron scandal and several scandals with the same likeability, in order to limit the control of several business practices the federal, local and state government agencies has incorporated a way to regulate the control these businesses has over the public. Introduced to congress by Senator Paul Sarbanes and representative Michael Oxley in 2002 the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed, which is a set of laws that every organization whether it be big or small must abide by. With the incorporation of the SOX Act shareholders and the general public are protected from accounting errors, and fraudulent practices within an enterprise. It also is meant to improve the accuracy of corporate financial disclosures. The Sarbanes Oxley is arranged in eleven titles with the most important ones often being considered to be 302, 401, 404, 409, 802, and 906. Section 302 pertains to the ‘Corporate Responsibilities for Financial Reports.’ This article is to basically insure that the signing officers of all financial documents certify the reliability and thoroughness of all signed documents. Section 401 pertains to ‘Disclosures in Periodic Reports’. It insures all financial statements...
Words: 1042 - Pages: 5
...SOX Act of 2002 ACC/561 UOP SOX Act of 2002 On July 30, 2002, President Bush signed into law the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which he characterized as "the most far reaching reforms of American business practices since the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt." The Act mandated a number of reforms to enhance corporate responsibility, enhance financial disclosures and combat corporate and accounting fraud, and created the "Public Company Accounting Oversight Board," also known as the PCAOB, to oversee the activities of the auditing profession. (Securities Exchange Commission, 2014) Over the years, there have been multiple fraud cases involving businesses’ accounting practices. Some of the motives range from misleading potential investors about the company’s earning to attract more investors and get more funding from banks to corporate executives taking a little more cash home in salaries, plus avoiding taxes to increase profits. The SEC was created to enforce statutes such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and others to try to prevent the massive amount of fraud that has been on the rise. Even after all these measures have been put forward, more than half of U.S. organizations that experienced fraud in the past two years reported an increase in the number of occurrences, according to a new survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers that also found a rise in accounting fraud, bribery and corruption, with cybercrime moving to the forefront of U.S. companies’ concerns. (Cohn, 2014) One of the...
Words: 1483 - Pages: 6
...SOX Act of 2002 Joseph Holmes LAW/421 May 11, 2015 Gregory Henderson University of Phoenix Material Article Review Format Guide MEMORANDUM UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX DATE: May 11, 2015 TO: Gregory Henderson FROM: Joseph Holmes RE: Year-old Law's Not Enough To Quell Some Investors' Distrust; By Rafael Gerena-Morales and Purva Patel Business WriterS July 30, 2003 ARTICLE SYNOPSIS Looking into many of the surveyor’s opinion they all feel that even with the new Sarbanes-Oxley Act they still cannot trust the market. They still feel that there are loop holes that companies have to still cheat the system. For reluctant investors, Sarbanes-Oxley aims to help them believe the force of law will fortify accounting standards and reduce the opportunities for executives to falsify financial reports that sway stock prices. Even though that this Act has only been working for a year it will take time in order for it work. It has not established any credibility because there has not been any law suits that have gone through any courts yet. Of course there is going to be a distrust between investors and the new established Act. LEGAL ISSUE The legal issue is that the Act has yet been able to get any credibility because it was barely established. “Charles Harper, who ran the Security and Exchange Commission's Miami office for 14 years until 1994, said investors will have to be patient because white-collar crimes can take months if not years to investigate...
Words: 415 - Pages: 2
...Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 LAW/412 July 25, 2014 Instructor Jacques Ward Congress Should Repeal the Sarbanes-Oxley Act Most commentators agree that the SOX Act provided the most sweeping and comprehensive amendments to the ’33 and ’34 Acts in securities law history. (Melvin, 2011 pg. 423) On the other hand, William A. Niskanen believed different. Individuals found it difficult to swallow the Act because it was believe to only be enacted so government official could feel better about confronting only a few points of popular concern instead of resolving the matter. According to Niskanen the SOX act of 2002 is unnecessary, harmful, and inadequate (Niskanen, 2006). Lengthy terms of incarceration and seizure of personal property are penalties under the SOX Act. The act was viewed as unnecessary because the stock exchange had already put into action a policy to address most of the problems given in the SOX Act. Those policies include accounting standards, prosecution for fraud, audits, and financial reporting procedures. Officials believed that both acts handled the same issues. Therefore; congress should deem the SOX act of 2002 unnecessary. The SOX act of 2002 was regarded as damaging because it would “reduce the incentive of corporate executives and directors to seek legal advice” (Niskanen, 2006). It was also seen as prejudicial because it created prohibitions on loans to corporate officers that would create complications for reparation. The act was considered to...
Words: 489 - Pages: 2
...Auditor independence refers to the position of the external auditor’s level of personal and financial ties to a particular organization which can sometimes be complex. When deciding whether to accept an auditing engagement, one must judge their independence and objectivity. This is why integrity is imperative in business, especially within the world of audit. Congress passed the law, The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) that applies to publicly held companies and their auditors. It was intended to protect investors by improving accuracy within the laws of the government (SEC, 2001). In addition, it also assists in prevention of financial statement fraud and make items more transparent for protection of the organization. To achieve these parameters,...
Words: 513 - Pages: 3
...The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Pub. L. No. 107-204, 116 Stat. 745, also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 and commonly called SOX or Sarbox; July 30, 2002) is a United States federal law passed in response to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals involving prominent companies in the United States. This examination of the Sarbanes- Oxley Act of 2002, will address the following: 1.Analyze the new or enhanced standards for all U.S. public company boards, management, and public accounting firms that the SOX required. 2.Examine why the new enhanced standards are necessary 3. Evaluate the benefits and cost of the SOX Through research of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the above questions will be addressed. Analyze the new or enhanced standards for all U.S. public company boards, management, and public accounting firms that the SOX required. Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted following a number of major corporate and accounting scandals involving prominent U.S. companies. Public trust in accounting and reporting practices was in a spiraling decline, SOX was designed to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made in accordance with the securities laws. SOX standards must be followed or strict penalties for noncompliance can result. According...
Words: 1009 - Pages: 5
...Economic Consequences of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Ivy Xiying Zhang* William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration Carol Simon Hall 4-312 University of Rochester Rochester, NY 14627 zhangxi@simon.rochester.edu February 2005 I am grateful for the guidance of my dissertation committee, Bill Schwert, Charles Wasley, Ross Watts, and especially Jerry Zimmerman (Chairman). I also appreciate comments from Jim Brickley, Philip Joos, Andy Leone, Jerry Warner, Joanna Wu, Yan Cao, Ling Lei, Laura Liu, Tao Kuang, and workshop participants at the University of Rochester. All errors are my own. * Abstract This paper investigates the economic consequences of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act through a study of market reactions to legislative events related to the Act. I find that the cumulative abnormal return around all legislative events leading to the passage of the Act is significantly negative. The loss in total market value around the most significant rulemaking events amounts to $1.4 trillion. I then examine the private benefits and costs of major provisions of the Act by investigating the cross-sectional variation in market reactions to the rulemaking events. Regression results are consistent with the hypothesis that shareholders consider both the restriction of nonaudit services and the provisions to enhance corporate governance costly to business. The results also show that Section 404 of SOX, which mandates an internal control test, imposes significant costs on...
Words: 28191 - Pages: 113
...The effectiveness of the Sarbanes Oxley Act 2002 The financial scandals of Enron, WorldCom and some other large companies in the beginning of this century, encouraged Congress to introduce the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) 2002 in order to fight the escalating commitment of financial statement fraud. The main objective of this legislation was to recover the investors’ trust in the American stock market, and enhancing the prevention and detection of corporate fraud. In this thesis I would like to analyze the effectiveness of SOX 2002 in preventing financial statement fraud, corporate governance characteristics and effective internal control systems. Finally, the results of the study showed that SOX has not been able to prevent or reduce the likelihood of financial statement fraud. Introduction Since the last 20 years the global economy has been facing a dramatic flow of accounting scandals committed by CEOs and managers of prestigious entities known all around the world. One of the most notorious fraud cases in the last decade was that of Enron where debts were hidden, revenues were inflated and the presence of corruption was uncovered. Other similar cases that also battered the accounting world were those of Adelphia Communications and Global, WorldCom, Parmalat, AIG and Tyco International. Most of these scandals took place during the latter years of the previous century and in the beginning of 2000. These actions obviously triggered a high level of uncertainty regarding...
Words: 1329 - Pages: 6
...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...
Words: 3735 - Pages: 15
...Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) resulted from the consequences of the financial disasters perpetuated by financial institutions such as Enron, Worldcom, and even the Savings and Loan debacles that served to fool and cripple the financial markets. As a result of their deceptive accounting practices, many investors lost millions of dollars. SOX was signed into law by President George Bush on the 30th day of July in the year 2002. The Act was lawmakers and legislators reaction to highly publicized financial reporting scandals like the ones involving Enron and WorldCom that had shaken investors' confidence in financial reporting and auditing and negatively influenced the quality of earnings from improper recognition of different items such as operational expenses on the income statement or liabilities on the balance sheet. The intended purpose of the SOX Act is to protect investors by improving the accuracy, and reliability of corporate financial reporting disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws, and for other purposes (James, 2006). The provisions of the SOX directly or indirectly affects several business professionals, including CPAs, managers and executives, financial statement analysts, and even lawyers. The provisions of the SOX are described in eleven titles, each one including numbers of subsections. SOX also offers harsh penalties for SOX violations, which constitute violations of the Securities Act of 1934 (James, 2006). The...
Words: 1248 - Pages: 5
...Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Analysis Lisa Dupree LAW 421 November 30, 2014 Miriam Gold Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Analysis The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was signed on the 30th day of July in year 2002 by President George W. Bush after passing through the Senate with a unanimous vote and passing through the House of Representatives with a 423-3 vote. When the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was enacted it directly affected CPAs, CPA firms that review public organizations, publicly traded organizations, their employees, their officers, their owners, those who have “more than 10 percent of the outstanding common shares” in a publicly traded company, lawyers who work for publicly traded companies, lawyers who have publicly traded organizations as clients, traders, merchants, financial specialist, and investors who work for publicly traded companies (NYSSCPA, 2014). The SOX act created a five affiliate oversight panel that is “subject to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversight” (NYSSCPA, 2014). The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) was created to investigate, inspect, discipline public accountant firms and also enforce compliance with the SOX act. Registration with the (PCAOB) is mandatory for all CPA firms. Lisa- The Enactment of the SOX Act Kris- SOX and Ethical Decision Making The SOX Act was created by Congress to protect investors and companies from irresponsible accounting practices. The purpose of the SOX Act is to ensure that...
Words: 1338 - Pages: 6
...Name> <Grade Earned> <Writing Score> <Date Graded> Case Study: A primer on Sarbanes-Oxley Leona M. Anderson Dr. Jennifer Scott Northcentral University A Primer on Sarbanes-Oxley Introduction The problem to be investigated is whether Sarbanes-Oxley has helped to improve public trust in the markets and reduce non-ethical practices in business. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was passed by the 107th Congress on July 30, 2002 (Sarbanes-Oxley, 2002) to provide protection to investors and shareholders as a result of fraudulent activities by some U.S. Corporations such as Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, and Adelphia, as well as other public companies (Jennings, 2012; Scott & Nganje, 2011). SOX introduced major regulatory changes which affect financial practice and corporate governance; and compliance is mandatory for ALL organizations (Guide to Sarbanes-Oxley, 2006). SOX is actually Public Law 107-204 and it is divided into eleven different parts, each one addressing a different ethical issue or activity of corporate practice (Sarbanes-Oxley, 2002). SOX has other more formal names such as “the Investor Confidence Act, the Public Accounting and Corporate Accountability Act, Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of...
Words: 2048 - Pages: 9
...of 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 U.S. Senator Paul Sarbnes of Maryland and U.S. Representative Michael Oxley of Ohio followed a series of corporate failures, which inacted the SOX Act based on Enron’s bankruptcy and other key organizations such as Worldcom, Tyco, Xerox, and Adelphia who were among the United States organizations executives in the headlines for misdemeanors and multi-billion dollar reassertions," (Dembinski, Lager, Cornford, Bonvin, 2005). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, (SOX) was incorporated to strengthen the internal improvements and oversight of corporate control. The primary purpose is to shield and protect shareholders from fradualent activities within the public sector and the stock market. The table below provides a list of a few provisions implemented in SOX Act. Section 302 | Section 401 | Section 404 | Section 409 | Section 802 | Requires that corporate administration confirm that they have assessed the financial reports. | Requires that financial reports include disclosure about any applicable off-balance sheet responsibilities that may exist. | Requires organizations to state whether or not the business's internal mechanism technique are sufficient and operative. | Requires administration to update the public of important budgetary matters when they occur, instead of waiting until the annual or quarterly report. | Imposes penalties for abuses of the SOX rules, which could lead to fines or some jail time. | A description of the SOX Act...
Words: 1125 - Pages: 5
...Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 Daniel Alvalle BUS 670 Legal Environment Instructor: Peter McCann 7/29/2013 If you were an investor would you 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...
Words: 2407 - Pages: 10
...The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Presented by: Ibrahim M. Conteh; Ruby Proctor Garcia; Kathleen M. Parry; Joseph M. Schmerling; Jaime Ulloa Auditing Theory and Practice 0902 ACCT422 4021 Due: April 29, 2009 Table of Contents Page Number What is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002? 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...
Words: 3247 - Pages: 13
