Effectiveness of Regulatory Reforms as Deterrent to Frauds and Unethical Actions

1313 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Research on Sarbanes Oxley act 2002

Introduction After a decade since implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley Act, people begin to discuss its effectiveness as deterrent to unethical and fraudulent activities. This paper analyses the effectiveness of regulatory reforms, and whether it is better using regulation and legal reforms or through ethnical teaching to prevent recurrence of fraudulent cases. Analysis on Effectiveness of Regulatory Reforms as Deterrent to Frauds and Unethical Actions in Audit What is Fraud Auditing? Fraud auditing is an intentional misinterpretation to obtain benefit. (Mintz and Morris 2008, p.53) It includes financial reporting frauds and misappropriation of assets, which are best represented by misstatement of debts in Enron scandal and theft of assets in Tyco International Scandal respectively. What are Unethical Actions? Ethics in business environment is core values and standards to guide one’s decision-making. (Mintz and Morris, 2008) Maxwell (2003) introduces “Golden Rule” to decide what constitutes to be ethical by asking one “How would I like to be treated in a particular situation?” Hence, unethical behaviours include allegedly inflating earnings to meet stockholders expectation in Healthsouth Scandal in 2003. Enhancement after Reforms Changing Culture in Auditors The United States Congress enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 after major scandals revealed loopholes in accounting policies. As Arthur Anderson LLP has double duties in Enron scandal, auditors are limited to types of auditing to maintain independence under SOX Sec.201. Sec. 10A of Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is amended by requiring audit partners to rotate after five years of service. Lynn Turner, former chief accountant at SEC, reports signi... ... middle of paper ... ...tection Act 1998. Ripley, A. (2002) Cynthia Cooper: The Night Detective. Time Magazine. [Online] Available from: http:// content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1003990-1,00.html [Accessed 13th March 2014] Soltani, B. (2007) Auditing: An International Approach. Pearson Education Limited. Sweeney, P. (2012) Sarbanes-Oxley – A Decade Later. Financial Executive. [Online] Available from: http://www.financialexecutives.org/ [Accessed on 12th March 2014] United States Congress. (1934) Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Usvyatsky, O. (2013) Restatements: Where They Come From. [Online] Audit Analytics. Available from: http://www.auditanalytics.com/blog/restatements-where-they-come-from/ [Accessed 15th March 2014] What is a whistleblower hotline? [Online]. Available from: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-whistleblower-hotline.htm [Accessed 13th March 2014]

Show More
Related

  • Internal Controls and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    A Guide to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (2006). Retrieved December 16, 2009 from www.soxlaw.com

    Read More

  • Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Erosion of Privilege and the Duty of Confidentiality

    2032 Words  | 5 Pages

    A possible flaw of Sarbanes-Oxley is it failed to put up any resistance in thwarting the financial crisis. While the degree to which fraudulent behavior can be traced to the roots of the Great Panic of 2007 will likely be up for eternal debate, it might be telling that Sarbanes-Oxley effectively did nothing. It seems this could indicate that stronger incentives for whistleblowers (such as Dodd-Frank and perhaps other whistleblower protection regimes) are very necessary given the extreme social costs. This conclusion may be hasty, however, given the short time period between the enactment of Sarbanes-Oxley and the crash. Not only is the status of Sarbanes-Oxley still in flux over a decade later, but one has to consider the substantial learning and switching costs associated with a regime with such a substantial ruach. Certainly, this is not to say that additional protections may in fact be necessary given the putative reluctance of lawyers to report fraud, but Sarbanes-Oxley likely needed more time to really crystalize and provide some level of predictability before it can be declared a bust.

    Read More

  • Accounting Fraud, the Investor and the Sarbanes Oxley Act

    1981 Words  | 4 Pages

    Madura, Jeff. What Every Investor Needs to Know About Accounting Fraud. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 1-156

    Read More

  • Fraud, Waste and Abuse Research Project

    3183 Words  | 7 Pages

    [17] Robert K. Elliot, CPA and John J. Willingham PhD, CPA, Management Fraud: Detection and Deterrence. New York: Petrocelli Books, Inc., 1980, pp. vii.

    Read More

  • The Collapse of the Madoff Pyramid

    1931 Words  | 4 Pages

    Our economy has been built upon for decades creating growth within the business industry. Businesses provide jobs, finances, and security for individual’s within society and is a main source of what defines our prosperous country. Every business has an ethical responsibility to its members and employee’s and to society at large. Ethical responsibility is a major component in which society needs to reinforce because it helps create principles, values, and standards, all of which help to guide a person’s behavior (Ferrel et al. 2013). Ethics help to create balance which in turn will have positive results for the business versus negative results. It seems that no matter where we look today, companies like Enron, WorldCom, AIG and many, many others substantiate the lack of business ethics in this country. At no other time than the last few decades has the need for ethical business oversight been of such importance to the prosperity of our country. As an example, Bernard Madoff is known to be the executor of the most fraudulent and deceitful Ponzi scheme in history, creating a stark reminder that the corrosion of ethics and lack of basic moral principles have taken this country to the point where trust in institutions and the very market driven systems that make our society work are in imminent danger of collapse. The Bernie Madoff case is a clear example of what can occur when businesses ethics are not in place. This case outlines a business man who defrauded thousands of people for years and caused major problems for those involved and for society at large. This essay is going to outline the major aspects of the case which include the nature of the problem, who are the major stakeholders, what is the problem from each of the stake...

    Read More

  • Deterrence Theory Essay

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    After a case like Enron, it is easy to be pessimistic about the prospects for change that could effectively prevent corporate crime. The ideas presented in this paper suggest that regulatory agencies can play a fundamental role not only in encouraging compliance with the law, but also deterring corporate crime. It is clear that corporate crime has substantial effects on its victims, yet corporations or their executives are not always held accountable for their actions. Compared to criminal prosecutors, regulators have more knowledge and resources to monitor corporations and potential offenders better understand the penalties associated with regulation. For these reasons, the power of regulatory agencies to monitor business practices should be increased.

    Read More

  • Lack of Ethical Behavior in the Cases of Bernie Madoff and Enron

    669 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ethical behavior is behavior that a person considers to be appropriate. A person’s moral principals are shaped from birth, and developed overtime throughout the person’s life. There are many factors that can influence what a person believes whats is right, or what is wrong. Some factors are a person’s family, religious beliefs, culture, and experiences. In business it is of great importance for an employee to understand how to act ethically to prevent a company from being sued, and receiving criticism from the public while bringing in profits for the company. (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, & Langvardt, 2010) Business ethics is when ethical behavior is applied in an business environment, or by a business. There are many situations that can arise in which a person is experiencing an ethical dilemma. They have to choose between standing by their own personal ethical standards or to comply with their companies ethical standards. In some instances some have to choose whether to serve their own personal interests, or the interest of the company. In this essay I will be examining the financial events surrounding Bernie Madoff, and the events surrounding Enron.

    Read More

  • Ethical Leadership versus a Written Ethics Code

    1487 Words  | 3 Pages

    In an organisation ethics are supposed to set standards as to what is the right thing to do in conduct and decision making however this is not always the case. Over the years different scandals have occurred which have shown that companies and in particular the people that run them are not at all ethical and only seek to maximize profits. Economical analysts throughout the years have suggested that the way to avoid such incidents is by either having a code of ethics along with ethics training or through strong ethical leadership.

    Read More

  • Corporate Accounting Fraud

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    In today’s day and age, there is a lot of news that is related to corporate accounting fraud as companies intentionally manipulate their financial statements to show a better picture of their financial health. The objective of financial reporting is to provide financial information about a company to its various stakeholders such as investors and creditors so that these stakeholders can make decisions accordingly. Companies can show a better image of their financial well being by providing misleading information. This can be done by omitting material information from the books or deceitful appropriation of assets such as inventory theft, payroll fraud, check forgery or embezzlement. Fraudulent financial reporting will have an effect on the This includes but is not limited to; check forgery, inventory theft, cash or check theft, payroll fraud or service theft.

    Read More

  • Analysis of the Enron/Arthur Anderson Scandal

    1550 Words  | 4 Pages

    Giroux, G. (Winter 2008). What went wrong? Accounting fraud and lessons from the recent scandals. Social Research, 75, 4. p.1205 (34). Retrieved June 16, 2011, from Academic OneFile via Gale:

    Read More

  • The Impact Of Accounting Fraud

    1617 Words  | 4 Pages

    ABSTRACT: The quantity of accounting fraud cases keeps on rising. Fraud is a consistent thing that will reliably be around, and in a bigger number of routes than just a single. An extensive apportionment of organizations out there fighting fraud, either from within the organization, or from outside the organization. Knowing how to manage this is essential for an organization to be productive over an extended period of time. The investigation regarding the matter of accounting fraud will utilize sources from the web and the DeVry School Library.

    Read More

  • Ethics In The Workplace

    1936 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ethics are the driving force behind good business. Every ethical choice made by a professional can and will have a much different outcome than any unethical choice. Bad ethics can ruin many aspects of a business and as (Gaye-Anderson, 2007) states how quite easily the lives and professional reputation of the employees can even be severally damaged (para. 3). Everything from morale to motivation can be severely affected by poor ethical choices. Customers will take their business elsewhere. Employees will abandon ship. Other, competing businesses reap the benefits of the bad moral choices. Ultimately, the entire business can be brought down by one poor ethical choice.

    Read More

  • The Traditional Audit Without Technology

    1360 Words  | 3 Pages

    The major characters of the tradition audit are all information what is needed by auditors are on the paper and the manual calculators and without high communication technology. Auditors usually were limited by the place in the paper time. When a several people are working on the same auditing project for a client with offices in cities across the country, even worldwide, it takes a lots all time those auditors get the information which they need from the client, even there is risk paper information disappear for many reasons. on the another hand, mail paper information increase the auditing cost. The mistake caused by the manual calculators inevitably, no matter how fixed auditors concentrate on recalculate is, after all auditors are human. The global business become major in the modern business world, some example, several auditors who are in different locations are working a same auditing project, or auditors are in different city even country with the client, when there is issue among these auditors or between auditors and client, they only can communicate with each other by phone or be together and have meeting. Phone call can not make sure information been watched in the same time when the voice is talking about the issue, but having a meeting takes time and money make all people together, it increases auditing cost.

    Read More

  • The Role of Ethics in Corporate Governance

    1629 Words  | 4 Pages

    This paper discusses the role of ethics in corporate governance. I seek to show the application of moral and ethical principles in corporate governance. Ethics is a topic that has generated a lot of interest in the last decade especially after high profile scandals. The failures of prominent companies such as WorldCom, Enron, Merrill lynch and Martha Stewart portrays the lack of corporate ethics. The failure of such business has seen an increased pressure to incorporate ethics in corporate governance. The result of corporate scandals has been eroding investor and public confidence. The entire economic system has experienced some form of stress from loss of capital, a falling stock market and business failures.

    Read More

  • The History of Auditing

    3399 Words  | 7 Pages

    The evolution of auditing is a complicated history that has always been changing through historical events. Auditing always changed to meet the needs of the business environment of that day. Auditing has been around since the beginning of human civilization, focusing mainly, at first, on finding efraud. As the United States grew, the business world grew, and auditing began to play more important roles. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, people began to invest money into large corporations. The Stock Market crash of 1929 and various scandals made auditors realize that their roles in society were very important. Scandals and stock market crashes made auditors aware of deficiencies in auditing, and the auditing community was always quick to fix those deficiencies. The auditors’ job became more difficult as the accounting principles changed, and became easier with the use of internal controls. These controls introduced the need for testing; not an in-depth detailed audit. Auditing jobs would have to change to meet the changing business world. The invention of computers impacted the auditors’ world by making their job at times easier and at times making their job more difficult. Finally, the auditors’ job of certifying and testing companies’ financial statements is the backbone of the business world.

    Read More

More about Effectiveness of Regulatory Reforms as Deterrent to Frauds and Unethical Actions

Open Document