Running Head: Effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act .
What will be the Effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act?.
In recent years, scandals have filled the news with horrifying dishonesty from many corporate officials in high power positions. In the end of 2002, a new law was passed through legislation of the United States that monitors the activities of law and accounting firms. This action was taken due to illegal "paper shredding" of financial documents. With these documents becoming non-existent, firms could misrepresent the earnings and financial statistics of the company and make it appear to be performing better than it really is. Through several large scandals, these large companies have shattered the images of corporate America in the public eye.
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Business today is different from what it was in the past. At one time the decisions of a company were known to be performed in good faith. However, in this business age cutting corners is often a path to quick success. This more often is seen from large scandals from executives from the firm itself or its accounting firms responsible for their financial statistics. When the financial documents are destroyed, the firm can then inflate their numbers to look better in order to boost profit, stock prices, and brand equity. In lieu of just giving "slaps on the wrist," the United States Government has created new laws to protect society from these "white collar" crimes. Unfortunately, this act also may hinder business relations between lawyers and their clients. The new laws imposed by President George W. Bush in 2002 incorporate a whistle-blower technique that is not very popular amongst some people in the industries affected by this law. However, these new protections from the government come overall favored by most people. Unfortunately, the scandal that was found out to be going on at Enron and several other large public firms had negatively impacted the public's view of what goes on "behind the scenes" by CEO's and other top executives.