Guide to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act: What Business Needs to Know Now That it is Implemented

Enron was once the seventh largest company on the Fortune 500, but after the greatest business scandal of a generation and one of the biggest of the last century, Enron took bankruptcy and essentially blinked out of existence following a wave of revelations of accounting regularities and securities fraud. Headlines soon linked Global Crossing, Tyco, WorldCom, Adelphia, HealthSouth and other companies to similar frauds, prompting Congress in June 2002 to pass the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), the most significant securities law changes since passage of the original federal securities laws in 1933 and 1934. Sarbanes-Oxley could ultimately prove to be one of America's most significant economic regulations. This short guide explains the ins-and-outs of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Students will be able to understand this major legislative change effecting CEOs, CFOs, and other financially responsible officers.