I was working for a publicly-traded American company when Sarbanes-Oxley took effect, and it had a major impact on the way we did business. The changes it demanded were so dramatic and costly that it was easier and cheaper for many U.S. companies to go private rather than comply.
It has also helped, I think, that the consequences for many of the players involved with Enron and other corporate scandals have been truly severe. CEOs have been held accountable and given real prison time rather than just a slap on the wrist, and for example the accounting firm Arthur Andersen has all but ceased to exist.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. Their trial just began in January. They both deserve at least what WorldCom's Bernie Ebbers got (i.e., 25 years in prison) but much of the public outrage about Enron has dissipated. I guess we'll see.
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I was working for a publicly-traded American company when Sarbanes-Oxley took effect, and it had a major impact on the way we did business. The changes it demanded were so dramatic and costly that it was easier and cheaper for many U.S. companies to go private rather than comply.
It has also helped, I think, that the consequences for many of the players involved with Enron and other corporate scandals have been truly severe. CEOs have been held accountable and given real prison time rather than just a slap on the wrist, and for example the accounting firm Arthur Andersen has all but ceased to exist.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. Their trial just began in January. They both deserve at least what WorldCom's Bernie Ebbers got (i.e., 25 years in prison) but much of the public outrage about Enron has dissipated. I guess we'll see.
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