Sarbanes-Oxley and the Pcaob

SOX enactment is an act that was formulated as a result of corporate scandals from Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, and Tyco. However, Congress succumbed to pressure from the public for the government to take action about the unethical behavior of company executives of publicly –traded companies. Thus, the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) was to restore the integrity and public confidence in financial markets. During these scandals, there were flagrant disregard to Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP). For example, according to Washington Post (2005), WorldCom

The Sarbanes-Oxley is a U.S. federal law that has generated much controversy, and involved the response to the financial scandals of some large corporations such as Enron, Tyco International, WorldCom and Peregrine Systems. These scandals brought down the public confidence in auditing and accounting firms. The law is named after Senator Paul Sarbanes Democratic Party and GOP Congressman Michael G. Oxley. It was passed by large majorities in both Congress and the Senate and covers and sets new performance standards for boards of directors and managers of companies and accounting mechanisms of all publicly traded companies in America. It also introduces criminal liability for the board of directors and a requirement by

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is a preventative measure passed by congress which protects investors from corporate fraud. Company loans were banned to executives and provided job protection to whistleblowers. Financial-literacy of corporate boards and independence are strengthen by the act. Errors in accounting audits are now the responsibly of the CEO’s. Sponsors to the act were Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) and Congressman Michael Oxley (R-OH) who the Act is named after.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, also known as SOX in short, is a U.S. Federal Law passed by President George Bush. The main reason behind passing of the law was that the government needed improved regulations mandating upper management to confirm the reliability and transparency of the financial statements. This bill came about because of the failure and malpractice by companies such as Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, and Arthur Anderson. These companies caused a major scandal where investors lost billions of dollars resulting in the public losing confidence in the U.S. Securities Market. “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.”[1] The act includes 11 sections that are enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In 2002 the U.S. Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), a legislation put in place not only to improve the accuracy of corporate disclosures, but also to protect shareholders and the general public from accounting errors and fraudulent practices in all organizations. Although these organizations include corporations, small businesses, non-profit institutions, government bodies and any other entity where business is conducted,

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was put into legislation on July 30, 2002 by President George W. Bush, for the purpose of regulating the financial practices and a host of other corporate and securities issues for all publically traded organizations. “Essentially, it was an attempt to impose tighter controls on the financial reporting, to try and provide more transparency in financial reporting, and to hold people accountable in the financial reporting.” (Dewey, 2012). It’s important to note that the SOX law applies to all companies registered under Section 12 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. Privately held and non-for profit companies are not impacted by the SOX law, however many have elected to voluntarily comply with the legislation. The law was enacted due to several corporate scandals in early 2000-2002; Enron, WorldCom and Tyco to name just a few. The early 2000’s will always be remembered for the deep recession and decline in economic activity, not just in the US, but in the global marketplace as well.

The Sarbanes Oxley Act came to existence after numerous scandals on financial misappropriation and inaccurate accounting records. The nature of scandals made it clear there are possible measure that could be used to prevent future occurrence of financial scandals. And the existence and effectiveness of Sarbanes Oxley has caused

According to Investopedia online (2015), Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX Act) is defined as a “legislative response to a number of corporate scandals that sent shockwaves through the world financial markets.” Prior to SOX, the United States faced major financial scandals in the American history. Some of the biggest financial scandals involved such high-profile companies as Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, and Arthur Andersen. Two types of fraud exist in the corporate world. First is fraudulent financial reporting which is defined as an intentional misstatement of amounts or disclosures with the intent to deceive users. The other fraud is misappropriation of assets which is defined as a fraud that involves theft of an entity’s assets. The following will

Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which is as often as possible alluded to as SOX or Sarbox, was presented 6 years back in 2002, or to be more particular, was authorized on July, 30 2002. This demonstration is otherwise called the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002. This demonstration showed up not without a moment 's delay with no reasons, there were not kidding requirements for its advancement and institution. There was a progression of bookkeeping and corporate outrages that affected such organizations as Tyco International, Enron, ImClone, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Adelphia, and Peregrine Systems. Amid embarrassments with said companied included, speculators lost billions of dollars and there was no legitimate demonstration to secure their interests in any capacity. These outrages created colossal cash misfortune, as well as seriously diminished open trust in the securities business of the USA.

Will the Sarbanes-Oxley provisions be effective to prevent another financial statement fraud? Since SOX was enacted, we have seen that it improves financial reporting quality, strengthens internal control and corporate governance, requires an enhanced disclosure of the financial statements, and increases oversight on public accounting firms. The incidence of fraud has been declining too. But, it does not necessarily mean that it can guarantee the prevention of an another financial statement fraud like Enron and WorldCom. Despite these enhancements in controls, detective and preventive measures, it cannot eliminate fraud completely since if someone wants to commit fraud, he or she will most likely find a way to do it no matter what controls

Due too many fraudulent activities in companies such as Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco International consumers became aware that something needed to change. As a result, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). SOX gave the public and investors a renewed confidence and strengthen corporate governance to insure that companies are reporting their financial information correctly and accurately.

Although there have been accounting fraud since the implementation of SOX, it seems that the act has lessened the rate at which these scandals occur. Even though the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was implemented to fight accounting fraud, and increase regulations and oversight by the SOX, accounting fraud is almost too big to eradicate. Although, it can be significantly reduced, accounting fraud and scandals will remain to be a part of corporate America.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 (U.S. House of Representatives 2002) was passed by congress as a result of a wave of accounting scandals and related financial irregularities in corporations such as Enron, WorldCom and Tyco.

The Sarbanes Oxley law has been in existence for over 10 years and corporate fraud is still prevalent in today’s corporate environment. Corporate accounting scandals are still a major issue with companies like Wal-Mart, Green Mountain Coffee, Oracle and Glaxo Smith Kline to name a few. A study was conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners between January 2006 and February 2008 based on 959 occupational fraud cases. The study revealed that most common fraud schemes were corruption, which occurred in 27% of all cases,

The much needed blowup was offered by the massive scandals at Enron and Worldcom followed by Adelphia and the rest. In their efforts to restore investors’ confidence in the capital market, the United States’ Congress enacted Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 (SOX). The SOX had ambitious goals to fix the root cause of the failures in corporate America, accountabilities in the boardrooms (Grasso, Tilley, & White, 2009: Kessel, 2011). In particular, the Act ensures that accounting records and reports are fairly presented and reliable (Verschoor, 2012: Aubert & Grudnitski, 2013). SOX achieves these by requiring certifications by the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) and the Chief Financial Officers (CFO). In addition, attestations by independent auditors of accuracies of the financial reports and internal controls over the accounting records.