The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (often shortened to SOX) is legislation enacted in response to the high-profile Enron and WorldCom financial scandals to protect shareholders and the general public from accounting errors and fraudulent practices in the enterprise. The act is administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which sets deadlines for compliance and publishes rules on requirements. Sarbanes-Oxley is not a set of business practices and does not specify how a business should
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passed by the United States Congress with the intention of protecting investors from fraudulent activities experienced by business entities or corporations. The enactment of the SOX Act happened at a time when various scandals such as Tyco, Enron, and WorldCom affected the confidence of investors. Indeed, the SOX Act is about regulatory measures that are essential for purposes of protecting the welfare of investors. It is important to note that the business environment in today’s world require the investors
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Introduction Authored in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandal, The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted in 2002, to keep public entities from committing fraudulent financial practices. The name Sarbanes-Oxley derives from former Senator Paul Sarbanes and former Representative Michael Oxley. “The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was signed into law by President Bush on July 30, 2002, and created a new private sector, nonprofit corporation-the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)-to oversee the financial
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twenty first century, and in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the business world was rocked with news of financial and accounting scandals at major Fortune 500 companies. Enron, a Texas based energy company, lied about profits and was accused of concealing debts so they did not show up in the company’s accounts (BBC News, 8/22/2002). Arthur Andersen, an accounting giant, member of the “Big Six”, and Enron’s corporate auditor, collapsed completely after being found guilty of deliberately destroying
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trust the profession to do there job to the highest standard. This is because the profession gains a good reputation of being on the whole an honest profession. This is particularly important in the accounting profession where ethics have been brought into the spot light over past few years. Accounting Ethics Auditors are not paid by those whose interest they are supposed to represent-those third parties who rely on our reports. Robert H. Montgomery emphasises this point: “accountants and the accountancy
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most common white collar crimes are theft of an employer's funds by the employees with access to such funds(embezzlement). Also, white collar crimes covers a wide range of crimes including stock swindles, frauds against insurance companies, credit card fraud, inocme tax evasion, cyberspace fraud and theft of computer programs, agreements with competitors to fix prices, stock trading based on nonpublic information. According to the seriousness of a white collar crime it can be either a felony or a
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Health and Safety Administration, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. For the purpose of this paper, a description of the Securities and Exchange Commission will be given. Further describing the regulations which will protect the public from fraud within corporations and what that represents in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The Securities and Exchange Commission The mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets
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19 3.1 Enron, the trigger to SOX? ........................................................................ 22 4. The Sarbanes Oxley Act: Radical Reforms in Key Areas ....................................... 26 4.1 Establishing the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) ......................................................................................................................... 26 1 Student ID: 082168461 4.2
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public accounting profession. K Y TOPICS: history of the public accounting profession in the United States, scope of E professional services provided to audit clients, auditor independence, and retention of audit workpapers. ; Case 1.2 Just for FEET, Inc. 23 In the fall of 1999, just a few months after reporting a record profit for fiscal 1998, Just for Feet collapsed and filed for bankruptcy. Subsequent investigations by law enforcement authorities revealed a massive accounting fraud that had
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of major corporate and accounting scandals such as Enron, Tyco International, and WorldCom. These scandals cost the investors billions of dollars due to the fall of stock prices. This act was implemented to hold companies accountable for falsely reporting their financial statements. The act contains eleven titles that describe specific mandates and requirements necessary for financial reporting including Corporate Responsibility, Financial Disclosures, and Corporate Fraud Accountability. In HealthSouth’s
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