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Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Fair And Competitive Business Practices

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Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Fair And Competitive Business Practices
The United States has several laws that are intended to further fair, balanced, and competitive business practices. These laws are typically effective as control measures to ensure fair business practices are followed. Determining the success or failure of specific legislation or regulations can be relative to what angle you are looking from. This paper will discuss the Sarbanes – Oxley Act of 2002 and how it addresses concerns surrounding fair accounting practices. Anytime new laws or regulations are introduced there is initial skepticism about their purpose and the impact they will have even when the laws that are enacted that are intended to promote fair and competitive business practices. One example of a regulation that was …show more content…
Another main focus of the Act is to increase transparency and accountability of business practices. It has been said that the Act is the most significant change to laws involving securities since the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 (Zameeruddin). The Sarbanes – Oxley Act is enforced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and carries penalties from one to five million dollars and up to twenty years in prison for knowingly alters, destroys, covers up, or falsifies accounting documentation ("Sarbanes – oxley act section,"). One of the provisions of the SOX Act was to establish internal controls as well as a review board to audit these internal controls to ensure that companies are in compliance. When this fails we need to look at the process instead of blaming …show more content…
(2012, November 3). Sarbanes-oxley act impacts privately held companies. Retrieved from http://www.grbj.com/articles/74764-sarbanes-oxley-act-impacts-privately-held-companies
Kaplan, J. (2010, June 10). Why corporate fraud is on the rise. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/10/corporate-fraud-executive-compensation-personal-finance-risk-list-2-10-kaplan.html
Keller. (2013, May 14). Protiviti 's 2013 sarbanes-oxley compliance survey shows companies ' need for more scrutiny on high-risk processes. Retrieved from http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1164803/protiviti-s-2013-sarbanes-oxley-compliance-survey-shows-companies-need-for-more-scrutiny-on-high-risk-processes
Sarbanes-oxley act of 2002 - sox. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sarbanesoxleyact.asp
Sarbanes-oxley act impacts privately held companies. (2012, November). Retrieved from http://www.grbj.com/articles/74764-sarbanes-oxley-act-impacts-privately-held-companies
Zameeruddin, R. (n.d.). The sarbanes-oxley act of 2002: An overview, analysis, and caveats. Retrieved from
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