Questions On Financial Reporting Disclosures

Congress enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 to restore investor confidence by requiring public companies to strengthen corporate governance through several mechanisms, including enhanced disclosure on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting (ICFR). As claimed by regulators, the disclosures on the effectiveness of ICFR are aimed at improving the quality of financial reporting, which would, in turn, reduce the information asymmetry for investors in U.S. capital markets” (Donaldson). Sarbanes- Oxley named after its creators, Senator Paul Sarbanes, D-Md and Congressman Michael Oxley, R-Ohio. Enacted in 2002 with the purpose to crack down on corporate fraud. The implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley led to the creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to oversee the accounting industry. It was created to eliminate corporate fraud, and it put in place a ban on company loans to executives while also giving job protection to whistleblowers. Before SOX was put into place the accounts were a self-regulated profession, such as medical professionals and lawyers. This is what led to the fraudulent actions of major institutions, people can be greedy, and they need checks and balances to ensure the fidelity of the firm. There are criminal enhanced penalties for corporate fraud and related misdeeds, this brings justice to the sector as well as working as a deterrent for additional immoral

A trend that has recently emerged as a violation of section 10(b) is the use of the internet to engage in pumping and dumping. Although not a new concept, the internet has been used to increase the effect because of its ability to disperse particular company information very quickly in order to affect stock prices. Persons initiating this deceptive behavior can sell their stocks for profit once they see that the changes to price have occurred. This type of behavior is considered fraud since it is a manipulation of

A major impetus behind the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was deliberate financial statement fraud. When committed on a large scale, billions of dollars can be lost and investor confidence in financial market will be reduced. Evidence suggests that the incidence of fraud has declined relative to the pre-SOX era. This can only be interpreted as suggesting that SOX

Most word references characterize fraud as a bogus representation of true data. Whether that false data is given by expressing false words, deluding claims, or by concealing or disguising uncovered data, it is viewed as fraudulent because of the beguiling nature. In spite of the fact that it is deceptive to give false data, people even in real companies will attempt to cover their misfortunes by reporting false data. Taking after many years of monetary frauds and outrages including executives and officers at a portion of the biggest organizations in the United States, Congress established the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Cheeseman, 2013). Congress ordered the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX Act) to shield customers from the fraudulent exercises of significant partnerships. This paper will give a brief history of the SOX Act, portray how it will shield general society from fraud inside of partnerships, and give a presumption to the viability of the capacity of the demonstration to shield purchasers from future frauds.

For as long as businesses have existed, so has accounting. With time, it has become more complicated and detailed, but it is still a process of keeping financial accounts in order. Through accounting, or financial reporting, a system is set up to keep track of, maintain and audit the financial proceedings. Because accounting and financial reporting of a business is so important for its accuracy and in general, a lot of ethical, technological and legal concerns are involved. In this paper, we will look identify and explore the concerns of each of these.

In 1998, an angry shareholder who described themselves as “fleeced shareholder” had e-mailed auditors and financial regulators questioning how HealthSouth was cooking their books. It is the date and detail in the e-mail that proves the most frightening. The e-mail displays that the fraud should have been caught long before it was uncovered. Unlike most investors, it was evident that this person had a background in accounting and raised legitimate concerns. Ernst & Young admitted to receiving this email in November of 1998. However, Ernst & Young felt the questions raised by the anonymous writer did not affect the presentation of the financial statements. Moreover, a former bookkeeper of HealthSouth, Michael Vines, also e-mailed Ernst & Young about specific area of fraud. His background qualified for his email to be considered worthy evidence. Nevertheless, Ernst & Young claimed that the accounting practices being question were

Descriptions of the main aspects of the regulatory environment which will protect the public from fraud within corporations are going to be provided in this paper. A special attention to the Sarbanes – Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) requirement; along with an evaluation of whether Sarbanes-Oxley Act will be effective in avoiding future frauds based on their implemented rules and regulations.

Excello Telecommunications was presented with a dilemma on how the company should report earnings so that they would appear to have met earning estimates for the 2010 financial year. The CFO, Terry Reed, was concerned with how failure to meet earning estimates would affect bonuses, stock options, and the share price of Excello stock. On December 201, 2010, the company sold $1.2 million of equipment to Data Equipment Systems. However, Data Equipment Systems requested that Excello hold on to the product until January 11, 2011, because they do not have the

A study conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) surveyed 959 cases of reported occupational fraud between 2006 and 2008. The report broke fraud into three categories: fraudulent statements, asset misappropriation, and corruption. Ninety-nine of the 959 cases reported financial statement fraud with a median loss of two million dollars, making it the most costly of the fraud categories. In general, the study found that publicly traded companies that had implemented SOX controls reported fewer losses (70 to 96 percent) than those who had not implemented SOX controls. These results imply that implementation of SOX controls are directly related to a reduction in theft and other fraudulent behaviors. Surprisingly, it was noticed that in companies where management must certify the financial statements, fraud took approximately three months longer to detect than in those companies where management was not required to certify the financial statements. However, due to the complexity and relative newness of SOX and the complexity of the businesses and the ingenuity of people, it is not surprising that SOX has not been a booming success. Hopefully, over time, all the wrinkles will be ironed out allowing for deterrence or immediate detection to be attainable. (Rappeport,

Baruch Lev and Feng Gu authors of “The End of Accounting and The Path Forward for Investors and Managers” indicate that over the past 110 years, the structure and content of financial reports has not changed, and that the role that these reports play in influencing the decisions of investors has greatly diminished. Lev and Gu make a case that non-transaction events that are not captured by the financial reports such as those disclosed through 8-k filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) have a greater impact on stock prices, and thus more useful to investors. In addition, they suggest that one of reasons for the decline in usefulness of financial reports stems from the increase of estimates that has made its way into these reports (Lev and Gu 2016).

The financial fraud, which took place at Waste Management Inc., brought a number of changes in the accounting world which are being experienced currently in the world. First, it awakened investors to the crisis in the accounting world. For instance, Roger Hamilton, a manager of John Hancock Value Funds, succeeded in unloading $600,000 of his shares before total collapse of stock, even though he

On January 1, Puckett Company paid $2.64 million for 88,000 shares of Harrison’s voting common stock, which represents a 40 percent investment. No allocation to goodwill or other specific account was made. Significant influence over Harrison is achieved by this acquisition and so Puckett applies the equity method. Harrison distributed a dividend of $2 per share during the year and reported net income of $613,000. What is the balance in the Investment in Harrison account found in Puckett’s financial records as of December 31?

Richard Okumoto has the greatest responsibility because he is in charge of the accounting department of the company. He is also legally responsible for the information in case of fraud, although he cannot be personally held responsible for the act. He can lose his job before he has enough time to explain the problem to the members of the board.

The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct is the foundation of ethical reasoning in accounting. The Code of Conduct typically is used to discuss the ethical obligations of CPAs. The principles guide members in the performance of their professional responsibilities and call for an unyielding commitment to honor the public trust. Although CPAs cannot legally be held to these principles, they do represent the expectations for them on the part of the public in the performance of professional services. Excello must be cautious to follow the rules of due care, general public interest and honesty.

J. Thomas Talbot, a member of the board of directors of Fidelity National Financial, Inc., a Delaware corporation, traded on confidential information about the impending acquisition of LendingTree, Inc., which he received in his capacity as a Fidelity director. We must decide whether Talbot can be held liable under § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Exchange Act"), 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b), and Rule 10b-5, 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5, promulgated thereunder, for misappropriating information from Fidelity, in the absence of a fiduciary duty of confidentiality owed to LendingTree by Fidelity or Talbot when he executed the trades. We hold that Talbot can be held liable, under the circumstances here, but that a