Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Over the years, we the consumers have seen a lot of fraud within corporations. In several instances the acts by greedy corporations have ruined not only the employees but the public stock and investors or shareholders. In order to safeguard the public from fraud, the government implanted regulator laws.
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 …show more content…
Apart from data stored and collected through Microsoft Office tools or their equivalent, email messages can be used as evidence in an investigation. Therefore, “corporations must be able to produce email messages as well as pertinent electronic data, if requested by investigators” ("What Is Sox Compliance?” 2011). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act not only affects the financial side of corporations, along with the IT departments in charge with storing the electronic records for the company. The act is not a set of business practices and does not specify how a business should store records; rather, it defines which records should be stored and for how long. SOX states that all business records, including electronic records and electronic messages, must be saved for "not less than five years." The consequences for noncompliance are fines, imprisonment or both ("Sarbanes-Oxley Act (sox) Definition", 2004). Knowing the act of requiring companies to be thorough in generating and upholding internal control in preventing fraud by the companies is an integrity an investor will be wanting. It is an across-the-board better approach to fraud prevention, with the involvement of multiple executives who provide checks and balances against one another, thereby reducing the chances that one or two dishonest executives can bleed a company dry. Leading by example is something we see across different agencies in today’s corporations, and hope to see more consistency for the sake of our financial
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 …show more content…
Apart from data stored and collected through Microsoft Office tools or their equivalent, email messages can be used as evidence in an investigation. Therefore, “corporations must be able to produce email messages as well as pertinent electronic data, if requested by investigators” ("What Is Sox Compliance?” 2011). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act not only affects the financial side of corporations, along with the IT departments in charge with storing the electronic records for the company. The act is not a set of business practices and does not specify how a business should store records; rather, it defines which records should be stored and for how long. SOX states that all business records, including electronic records and electronic messages, must be saved for "not less than five years." The consequences for noncompliance are fines, imprisonment or both ("Sarbanes-Oxley Act (sox) Definition", 2004). Knowing the act of requiring companies to be thorough in generating and upholding internal control in preventing fraud by the companies is an integrity an investor will be wanting. It is an across-the-board better approach to fraud prevention, with the involvement of multiple executives who provide checks and balances against one another, thereby reducing the chances that one or two dishonest executives can bleed a company dry. Leading by example is something we see across different agencies in today’s corporations, and hope to see more consistency for the sake of our financial