Sarbanes-Oxley Act
The objective of this study is to read the guide to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and to: (1) Evaluate the effectiveness of regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley Act over minimizing the corporate fraud and protecting investors make one suggestion for improvement; (2) Given the oversight of the accounting profession by the PCAOB as a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, assess the impact on auditing firms and the public accounting professions; (3) state an opinion as to whether the writer of this work believes that the accounting profession is better off being self or government regulated with regard to a firm's ability to detect and report corporate fraud. Support for your position; and finally to (4) Predict whether or not corporate fraud will be reduced, increase, or remain the same based on requirements for audits of publicly traded companies as prescribed in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Overview of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
The legislation to the…...
mlaWorks Cited
Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2003) Soxlaw Website. Retrieved from: http://www.soxlaw.com /introduction.htm
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
The Impact Upon the Accounting Profession
What it does
The Effect of Sarbanes-Oxley on the Accounting Profession
New Rules, New Practices
The past few years have remarkably changed the face of American business. Corporate scandals involving America's largest companies have shaken the confidence and trust that the public once had in big business. The desire to boost earnings has led some executives to commit crimes, in order to fatten their own pockets, at the expense of hard working employees, shareholders and stakeholders. The end result however, has proved disastrous. Workers have been laid off, thousands of people have lost their savings due to rapidly falling stock prices of their firm during rapidly imposed black out periods when employees were unable to pull their monies out. The collapses of Enron and WorldCom, as well as other well-publicized financial debacles, have led to an unprecedented level of attention paid to corporate governance, financial disclosure, and…...
mlaBibliography
Commission Approves Rules Implementing Provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Accelerating Periodic Filings, and Other Measures." Retrieved on February 15, 2003 from website: http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2002-128.htm
How the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Impacts the Accounting Profession." Retreived on February 13, 2002 at http://www.tscpa.org/welcome/SarbaneEffect.html
Paetkau, Tyler. "Employment Law Considerations Raised by Post-Enron, Sarbanes Act of 2002." Retrieved on February 12, 2003 from website: http://www.lawmemo.com/emp/articles/sarbanes.htm
Sarbanes-Oxley Act -- it's a good thing
n the wake of the horrible corporate scandals of recent years, including Enron and Arthur Anderson, it became readily apparent that some kind of regulation of ethics must be established. ndeed, any scandal in which large numbers of investors lose billions of dollars due to misconduct, is likely to bring action, and the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act of 2002 is just that. However, although much is said about the useful effects of the act on the economy in general (after all, the confidence of investors is one of the strongest key's to a robust economy), the impact on individual employee "whistleblowers" within corporations is perhaps the most striking with regard to the expression of personal business ethics and responsibilities, as well as the effectiveness of the Act itself.
Most people consider the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or "SOA" to be an excellent example of the much needed strict rules and…...
mlaIn short, the Sarbanes-Oxley act is a powerful, and much needed addition to the laws governing publicly traded companies. However, the most significant aspect of the Act is its provisions for whistleblowers. After all, when the Martha's of the world have employees looking over their shoulders, they might think twice before acting unethically. Sure, imposed ethics are poor shadows of authentic integrity -- but an investor will take what he or she can get, as long as it prevents the loss of all they have invested in good faith.
Gamble, John. Sarbanes-Oxley. Retrieved from Web site on 03 March, 2004
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
hile most Americans know the names Enron and orldcom, fewer know the term Sarbanes-Oxley Act; however, despite the alarming impact of the two business disasters, the potential impact of Sarbanes-Oxley stands to exceed the impact of those two bankruptcies many times over. hile Enron and orldcom each held a claim to 'biggest' or 'most' in some aspect of global business and also in various aspects of global business disaster, when it was over, it was over.
That is not so with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or any law passed by the U.S. government, in fact. Laws tend to remain on the books once they get there, with their requirements bedeviling generations of Americans. In some respects, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has a great deal in common with the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act; both were passed extremely quickly in reaction to events that frightened the American public. It is easy to wonder if, on…...
mlaWorks Cited
"Bad Stock Market Medicine." The Washington Times 19 Dec. 2002: A21. Questia. 5 Dec. 2004 .
Bennett, Drake, and Alex Gourevitch. "Put a Face on Your Fears: The Apprehensive Citizen's Guide to the New Republican Committee Chairmen of the U.S. Senate -- And What They Have in Store for Us." The American Prospect 30 Dec. 2002: 20+. Questia. 5 Dec. 2004 .
"Criminalizing Business." The Washington Times 23 Oct. 2002: A16. Questia. 5 Dec. 2004 .
"Good Governance Is Good Business." Canadian Speeches Mar.-Apr. 2003: 59+. Questia. 5 Dec. 2004 .
Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOA) was put into law in 2002 following the revelations that Enron (and Enron's accountancy Arthur Anderson), orldCom, and other corporations were using blatantly corrupt practices in accounting and causing huge losses for stakeholders in those firms. Moreover, the U.S. Congress could not simply stand by and allow companies to use unethical and illegal practices to scam huge sums of money for corporate executives while stripping the IRAs and other savings plans for stakeholders. Basically, the SOA was legislation that attempted to stop this aspect of corporate fraud: the illegal accounting practices that were in place and resulted in the collapse of orldCom, Enron, and other firms.
hat specifically does the Sarbanes-Oxley Act set out to do?
It is an understatement to say that there were major chances needed to the regulation of financial practices in corporate America. And following the investigations into corrupt practices at Enron, et al., U.S.…...
mlaWorks Cited
DeVay, Debra. (2006). The Effectiveness of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in Preventing and Detecting Fraud in Financial Statements. Boca Raton, FL: Universal-Publishers.
Fletcher, Wilma H., and Plette, Theodore N. (2008). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Implementation,
Significance, and Impact. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Publishers.
Orin, Richard M. (2008). Ethical Guidance and Constraint Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Evaluating the effectiveness of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
The Public Company Accounting eform (PCA) and Investor Protection Act (IPA) was established in mid-2002 by the congress with the emergence of unceremonious scandals in accounting practice that resulted in firms going bankrupt and losing huge stocks in the stock market (Prentice & Bredeson, 2010). This act is what is referred to as Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002. The act also led to the establishment of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), whose function is to oversee the accounting practice industry.
The Sarbanes-Oxley act was established with intend of preventing the clash of interest which resulted in fraud. The auditors are prohibited from consulting for the auditing clients that engage in fraud (Welytok, 2006). It also gives the people who blow whistle on the individuals practicing these activities security of their jobs. Moreover, it banned the issuing of loans to the company executives. Sarbanes-Oxley…...
mlaReferences
Welytok, J.G. (2006). Sarbanes-Oxley for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Holt, M.F. (2008). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Costs, benefits and business impact. Amsterdam:
CIMA.
Bauer, A. (2009). The Enron scandal and the Sarbanes-Oxley-Act. Mu-nchen: GRIN Verlag.
Literature on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
The field of specialized literary reviews on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a widely spread one presenting numerous issues form various standpoints. Reviewers' opinions vary based on their position towards the bill and their prior professional expertise on white-collar crimes.
Among the mostly appreciated and close to reality works are: The Impact of Regulatory Information Disclosure on Information Security Investments, Competition and Social Welfare by Anindya Ghose at New York University and Uday Rajan at the University of Michigan; Serbanes-Oxley Whistleblower Cases, by Philip M. erkowitz and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and Current Proposals by NYSE, Amex and NASDAQ.
6. Conclusions
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was passed in order to better supervise the actions within the business department. The Senate and the House of Representatives felt the crucial need for such legislature due to the increased number of white-collar fraud cases in the past years.
The…...
mlaBibliography
Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, Sarbanes-Oxley Act, postedon October 18, 2006, accessed on October 21, 2006http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act,last
Warren W. Hamel, Esq. Venable Howards, it's Not Just Enron: A Guide to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for Nonprofit Organizations
Larry E. Ribstein, Corporate Governance at Crossroads: Sizing Up SOX, Draft of January 18, 2005
Anindya Ghose and Uday Rajan, the Economic Impact of Regulatory Information Disclosure on Information Security Investments, Competition and Social Welfare, Submitted to Workshop on Economics of Information Security, March 2006
The integrity of the financial sector of these organizations controlled by state agencies and related services, would improve. The provisions offered by the act would serve as models based on which standards for other non-profit organizations can be developed in the future. It will create a better understanding of the limitations placed on auditors and a deeper scrutiny of the financial and transaction statements presented by the auditors. hile the business governance rules do help out universities to good extent in avoiding scandals, generalizing all sections would not help.
Surveys have been conducted to determine the extent to which the Sarbanes-Oxley act should be implemented in universities and colleges. One of the studies revealed that around half of the respondents think that incorporating certain sections of the act would be a good idea. A research carried out by the corporation PricewaterhouseCoopers' named "Taking the Right Patii" brought together the presidents…...
mlaWorks Cited
Champy, J.(2007, May 8) Sarbanes-Oxley advice for smaller public companies. Retrieved June 2,2010 from http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/column/0,294698,sid182_gci1253631,00.html
Sarbanes-Oxley on Trial. Retrieved June 2, 2010 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107104574571662869948676.html
Freeman, J.(2009, Dec 15) the supreme case against Sarbanes-Oxley. Retrieved June 3,2010 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704431804574539921864252380.html
Mello-e-souza, C and Awasthi, V.(2009,April) Probing financial statements in a post-Sarbanes-Oxley world. Retrieved June 3, 2010 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6421/is_10_90/ai_n31947078/
The investors got intoxicated by fraud happened to them because of greedy people. Thousands of employees left as the stock market went to the peak but most of them left their jobs due to low pay as well. (Kerry Hannon, July 6, 2005) bill was passed by the President ush after the corporate fraud nearly just after three weeks on April 25, 2002. It referred to the Senate anking Committee which was clearly supported by the president and SEC. The bill was passed for the corporate fraud, regulatory board with investigative, enforcement powers to check out the accounting company, securities and laws for accounting and also to punish the corrupt auditors. However, more than 200 federal prosecutors were involved in this fraud. At the same time, the chairman of the committee, Senator Paul Sarbanes also prepared a bill which was passed on June 18, 2002 to the Senate anking…...
mlaBibliography
Ca. (November 2006). Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Its Impact on it Organization. Retrieved on November 20, 2007 at http://www.ca.com/files/WhitePapers/sarbanes_oxley_impact_on_it_whitepaper.pdf
Grinberg, Elina. (2007). The Impact of Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 on Small Firms. Retrieved on November 21, 2007. http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=honorscollege_theses
Hannon, Kerry. (June 6, 2995). Book Looks at How, Why U.S. Investors were 'Robbed Blind' Retrieved on November 21, 2007 http://www.usatoday.com/money/books/reviews/2005-06-13-robbed_x.htm
Pozgar, George. Legal Aspects of Health Care Administration.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
I agree with the points presented in the Sarbanes-Oxley and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) essay. Investors and portfolio managers are typically outsiders when it comes to internal financial matters within companies. In order to make informed decisions, they must rely on the good faith and due diligence of corporate insiders. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act offers protection by interjecting ethical behavior and integrity in the public company management and auditing process. Signed into law by President Bush on July 30, 2002, it offers the most massive across the board changes to securities law since the 1930s (Weinberg, 2003). The PCAOB was established to oversee auditors and put severe restrictions on questionable financial reporting and processes.
The strength of U.S. securities regulation is ultimately dependent on disclosure. The best way to protect investors from fraud is to require companies selling stocks and bonds to the public to disclose detailed information about…...
mlaReferences
Weinberg, J.A. (2003). Accounting for Corporate Behavior. Economic Quarterly (10697225), 89(3), 1-20.
IntroductionFrom the onset, it would be prudent to note that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act remains a rather instrumental law in efforts to reign in corporate fraud and further enhance reliability in the realm of financial reporting. The said act was passed in the year 2002. This text concerns itself with not only the significance of this particular piece of legislation, but also the reason as to why it was passed. Amongst other things, the paper will also consider how knowledge of the various provisions of the act would enable one to promote corporate governance in an organization.DiscussionWhy the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was PassedFletcher and Plette (2008) make an observation to the effect that this particular act was necessitated by the numerous financial scandals that appeared commonplace following our march into the 21st century. Some of the most prominent scandals in this case involved firms that were publicly traded, including but not limited…...
mlaReferences
Anand, S. (2011). Essentials of Sarbanes-Oxley. John Wiley & Sons.
Fletcher, W.H. & Plette, T.N. (2008). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Implementation, Significance, and Impact. Nova Publishers.
Kieff, F.S. & Paredes, T.A. (2010). Perspectives on Corporate Governance. Cambridge University Press.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Compliance Hazards and Ethical DilemmasThe critical components of compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act include the acknowledgement of responsibility by CEOs and CFOs for all financial reports, the issuance of regular internal control reports by the publicly-traded organizations that must abide by the Act, data security compliance with appropriate controls, and documentation of compliance (What is SOX Compliance, 2019). One significant compliance hazard which has emerged in the era of COVID-19, however, is the difficulty of instituting timely financial reports, given the delays, increased uncertainty, and heightened risk in the volatile international environment where outbreaks and lockdowns still continue to abound (Christensen, 2019). There may be an ethical dilemma between protecting employees from being exposed via social distancing and the ethics of compliance with reporting.SOX likewise requires careful monitoring of sensitive data controls, to minimize the risk of identity fraud (Cryer, 2019). Yet many companies have been sluggish…...
mlaReferences
Christensen, B. (202). Voices: Assessing SOX compliance risk in the coronavirus environment.
Accounting Today. Retrieved from: https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/assessing-sarbanes-oxley-compliance-risk-in-the-coronavirus-environment
Cryer, W. (2021). What is SOX cybersecurity compliance? Audit Board. Retrieved from:
The Sarbanes Oxley Act - Ethical Dilemmas in the Banking IndustryThe Sarbanes Oxley Act poses various dilemmas in its execution in the financial industry. Particularly in its implementation in the spheres of corporate governance. The first involves nonprofit organizations where its effectiveness is dependent on the ethical values of executive leadership. While the Act requires constant reporting and monitoring of the financial operations, it relies on the integrity of the leaders who serve the oversight roles in those organizations (Hess, 2007). The fiscal integrity attached to the Act's objectives is only valid if relevant structures are implemented at every level. That is, there must be ethical considerations in the culture and norms of the organizations for both informal and formal settings. The Act assumes that the organization correctly does auditing to help protect investors and other shareholders from fraudulent reporting (Hess, 2007). The organization's declaration to abide by the Sarbanes…...
mlaReferences
Heminway, J (2008). Does Sarbanes-Oxley Foster the Existence of Ethical Executive Role Models in the Corporation?, 3 J. Bus. & Tech. L. 221
Hess, D. (2007). A Business Ethics Perspective on Sarbanes-Oxley and the Organizational Sentencing Guidelines. Michigan Law Review, 105(8), 1781–1816.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40041566
1. If jail time is off the table for executives, that would be an odd choice. Sarbanes Oxley creates disincentives for esecutives to commit fraud, such as in Enron. The point of SOX was really to add extra regulatory teeth, added punishments for executives committing fraud, under the knowledge that most major fraud is committed with the approval of executives, or driven by them. Folks lower down don’t have the access, nor the equity-based compensation packages, that would motivate or facilitate fraud without senior executive knowledge or initiation. As such, a law that takes jail time off the table would be pointless, as the incentives to commit accounting fraud are largely financial in nature, and therefore any punishment that simply involves fines or forfeiture of assets will invariably end up with a punishment lower than the proceeds of the crime. The point of jail time is to provide a deterrent…...
Quality and Reliability in Financial Reporting Publicly-traded companies have an obligation to provide accurate and reliable financial statements to current and potential investors. Investors and others users of financial statements depend on this information to make investment and business decisions (McEwen, 2009). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) acknowledge the importance of truthful, material, and dependable financial reporting. Based on SOX provisions and SEC reporting requirements, this paper discusses the significance of ensuring quality and reliability in financial reporting. The paper specifically focuses on the role of the board of directors and the chief executive officers (CEO) in ensuring the reliability of financial statements, strategies a CEO can use to ensure quality and reliable financial reporting, and how corporate management can increase investor confidence in financial reporting. Attention is also paid to possible consequences to a publicly traded company due to unreliable financial reporting as well…...
mlaReferences
Bragg, S. (2009). Accounting control best practices. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.Holt, M. (2008). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Costs, benefits and business impacts. New York: Elsevier.McEwen, R. (2009). Transparency in financial reporting: A concise comparison of IFRS and US GAAP. Great Britain: Harriman House Limited.Monks, R., & Minow, N. (2011). Corporate governance. 5th ed. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.Vallabhaneni, S. (2008). Corporate management, governance, and ethics best practices. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
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