Accounting Scandals, notice these aren't even brought up

[Robert Oak]

Has anyone noticed that the great cooking the books has gone by the wayside and as far as I know, no reforms were actually made.

I do know that "Tort reform" is a buzz word to keep stockholders
from suing when a corporation acts illegally thus causing them
to lose billions.

What ever happened to regulating the auditors as well as expensing options? Dead by the chimp company?

Just a comment.

[Old and In the Way]

1. What happened?

9/11......Iraq.......terror.......

It's amazing how numbed we've become to criminal malfeasence. Before 2000 our Congress was willing to investigate anything - travel vouchers, missing "W" keys on computers, $30,000.00 land deals, tawdry consenual sex affairs.

But 1/20/01 changed everything.

[NVMojo]

3. it's still going on but they really appreciate the distractions

that Rove and the election chaos producers are offering these days. And Sinclair ...

[loveable liberal]

2. who will prosecute? the attorney general? ha!!

effen pukes who run these companies are just as slimy as karl rove. anyone that can live with themselves running a company getting paid 300:1 on average over the lowest paid employee is a complete bastard. I dislike them severely. running a company isnt that hard.

[German-Lefty]

4. No

I do know that "Tort reform" is a buzz word to keep stockholders
from suing when a corporation acts illegally thus causing them
to lose billions.
No, "Tort reform" is to keep stockholders happy, because you can't sue thier companies, when they cause you personal damage.

Did they never get around to legislating how this options should be expensed? I remember they were arguing about the details a while back. Probably just to buy time, until we forget about it.

[IrishDemocrat]

5. Accounting major here

Stock options for executives are a raw deal for lower-end sotckholders. Their pay is not tied to the actual performance of the company. It's rather arbitrary about the timing of the stock of when it is bought and sold. Corporate governance should be another campaign issues for the Dems.

[Centre_Left]

6. Sarbanes-Oxley

The accounting profession is now, for the first time, regulated by the federal government, which I suppose many will think will improve the quality of audits. All publically-traded companies must now undergo audits of their internal control systems in addition to their financial statements. This second change is a massive undertaking that has rocked the acounting profession and drastically increased accounting fees. Imagine documenting, for the first time, all of the internal controls over the accounting data of a company like MCI, AFLAC, or Wal-Mart. The law has many other more well-publicized aspects, such as mandatory partner rotation, but the internal control aspects are certainly the most significant. Whether or not this reform will actually have any effect on preventing fraud is anyone's guess but I can assure you that Congress has acted in a big way.