Preview

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
985 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
Week # 2 Individual Assignment

Sox Key Main Aspects for a Regulatory Environment
Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in 2002 by former president George Bush. Essentially to combat the Enron crisis. The Sox Act basically has regulatory control and creates an enviroment that is looking out for the public. Ideally this regulatory environment protects the public from fraud within corporations. Understanding, that while having this regulatory control at times the Sox requirements need to be tweaked or amended. Not only now but in the future as well. The main aspects of the Sox act are essentially looking out for our welfare as a consumer. Our government has the obligation to regulate and facilitate any rules to enforce with a corporation to protect the American people.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 came into its own in the summer of 2002. The act got its name from Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley. Essentially these two gentlemen were the founding fathers of this act. They set up the framework for compliance and regulatory controls. The Sox is formatted with 11 different titles, however for compliance regulations there are six important sections. These sections are; 302,401,404,409,802, and 906. Each one of these is the backbone of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

One section in particular is a key component to hold corporations accountable; that would be section 302 of the Sox act. Essentially making both the CEO and CFO sign off on all financial documents. This is huge for any company. The reason being it holds people accountable, which in any business is essential for its own sustainable success. If the CEO has to review every financial document and essentially is putting his career on the line and to avoid a jail term. Each financial document is going to be scrutinized by him before he signs off of the financials.

Another important article of the six is section 401 of the



References: Addison-Hewitt Associates. (2006). A Guide To The Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Retrieved from http://www.soxlaw.com/ Investopedia ,(2014). Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002-SOX. Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/ Rouse, Margret. (2007). Definition of Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Retrieved from http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/Sarbanes-Oxley-Act Brite, Clayton. (2013). Is Sarbanes-Oxley A Failing Law? University of Chicago Undergraduate Law Review. Retrieved from; http://uculr.com/articles/2013/6/30/is-sarbanes-oxley-a-failing-law

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) originated on July 29, 2002 due to fraudulent bookkeeping practices and misleading financial reports from large corporations. These practices created a number of accounting scandals, which resulted in this in the government creating such an act. The purpose was to prevent and punish corporate corruption and, along the way, try to repair investor confidence. The law was passed by congress after well-known companies (Enron, Peregrine Systems and Tyco International, to name a few) caused great humiliations to its investors, which in result cost them billions of dollars. The share prices of the affected companies collapsed, which shook public confidence in the nation’s securities markets.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Acc291Individual Paper

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was created in response to the series of misleading and fraudulent activities of publicly traded big business’s in the 1990s. During this time, multiple large publicly-traded businesses increased their stock prices by “publishing false or deceptive financial statements” (Lasher, 2008, p. 187). The most publicly charged company was Enron, which was then followed by Xerox, WorldCom and Global Crossing. This resulted in millions of dollars of stock market value disappearing in what seemed to be overnight. It is in response to these events that Congress drafted and passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sarbanes Oxley Memo

    • 1426 Words
    • 6 Pages

    History of SOX - the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is legislation in response to the high profile financial scandals, such as seen with Enron and WorldCom. The purpose of this act is to protect shareholders and the general public from accounting errors and fraudulent business practices. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act introduced stringent new rules to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws. Sarbanes-Oxley is not a set of business practices and does not specify how a business should store records; rather, Sarbanes-Oxley defines which records are to be stored and for how long.…

    • 1426 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is mandatory. All large and small organizations must comply with this act. The legislation came into existence in 2002 as a result of a number of corporate and accounting scandals and introduced major changes to the regulation of financial practice and corporate governance. The main architects of the acts were Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley. The SOX act protects the shareholders from forged representations in corporate financial statements. The financial information on which the investors rely should be truthful and its accuracy must be verified by an independent third party.…

    • 187 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Law 421 Week 1 Summary

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was put in to place as a way of preventing and deterring future accounting fraud, protecting shareholders, and increasing confidence in public company financial reporting. However, SOX has imposed tremendous new duties and costs on public companies and accounting firms. Some individuals may call it an object failure while SOX hoped to create more confidence in capital markets it does not prevent fraud or abuse from occurring.…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sarbanes-Oxley Act

    • 534 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Senator Paul Sarbanes and Represenatative Michael Oxley partnered to draft the act prior to 2002. Their goal was to develop legislation that would protect consumers, mainly investors, from companies who would fraudulently report accounting numbers to avoid taxes, regulations, or other barriers that kept the company from maximizing it’s profits. The SOX Act holds company CEO's and CFO's responsible for the information presented by their company in financial statements. It created new standards of accountability for corporations as well as penalties of those standards of accountability are not met. SOX established new financial reporting…

    • 534 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is the most far-reaching change in organizational control and accounting regulations since the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. The new law made securities fraud a criminal offense and made more strict penalties for corporate fraud. The law now requires top executives to sign off on their firms financial reports, and they risk fines and long jail sentences if they…

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002(SOX which is also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act was enacted in July, 30, 2002 as a prompt response to the financial crimes scandals (Adelphia, Enron, WorldCom, Peregrime Systems , Arther Anderson and Tyco International). SOX establishes new, stricter standards for all US publicly traded companies. It does not apply to privately companies. The Act is administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which deals with compliance, rules and requirements. The Act also created a new agency, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, which is in charge of overseeing, regulating, inspecting, and disciplining accounting firms in their roles as auditors of public companies. In my opinion, the benefits of the act cant be able to overcome the frustration and the cost of it.…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act

    • 1136 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a good thing for the American corporations. It has made them become more responsible for their actions and has made the dishonest executives’ pay for what they have done. The SOX Act has also helped to protect the public in general against future fraud and damages that might…

    • 1136 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act aided in the restoration of investor confidence by strengthening enforcement of the federal securities laws. SOX broadened the Security Exchange Commission’s ability to enforce and penalize, acting as a deterrent for potential fraudsters and permitting restitution to those who have been injured. (Donaldson, 2003) Additionally, SOX created the Public Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to aid in the enforcement of their mandates (Coates, 2007).…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Sarbanes-Oxley act was enacted in 2002 following corporate financial scandals like those involving Enron and WorldCom. The act was created in order to combat corporate accounting fraud and enhance the quality of corporate financial disclosures. To accomplish this, the act created the "Public Company Accounting Oversight Board", or PCAOB to oversee audits and compliance.…

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Office, U. G. (2006). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act 4 Years Later; What Have We Learned. Washington, DC. Retrieved from Dummies.com: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/taking-a-look-at-a-sarbanesoxley-overview.html…

    • 1794 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sarbanes-Oxley Act

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is mandatory. To prevent the dishonest practices all organizations are required to comply with The Sarbannes-Oxley Act of 2002. The act is named after Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley. In 2002 the legislation changed the “Financial practice and corporate governance.” ("The Sarbanes-Oxley Act", 2006). For investors to be protected from fraud related to publically traded companies the act…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Sarbanes-Oxley Act

    • 2083 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Chapter 5: the Sarbanes- Oxley act of 2002 involved the public anger that started when Enron, WorldCom, and other big companies scandals. This is when there was support for white collar crime when it came to accounting standards. Under the law of federal sentencing rules to make sure that white collar criminals are being punished. (Barnes, 2012). 1. For someone to alter or get rid of documents and there intensions to obstruct or effect the crime/case. 2. The CEO (chief executive officer) and the CFO (chief financial officer) must clarify that repots have been submitted to the SEC (securities and exchange commission.) it is a crime if the CEO and CFO make a report that is false. 3 CEO and CFO must reimburse the company for any raises and if…

    • 2083 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    • Use the Electronic Reserve Readings, the University Library, the Internet, or other credible resources to locate an article that examines the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.• Write a 700- to 1,050-word summary of this article addressing the following:…

    • 132 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays