Sarbanes Oxley Essay

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Commentary on “The Case of Phar-Mor Inc.” and other Pre Sarbanes-Oxley Corporate Fraud Commentary on “The Case of Phar-Mor Inc.” and other Pre Sarbanes-Oxley Corporate Fraud Introduction The purpose of this paper is to summarize the article titled “The Case of Phar-Mor Inc.” written by S. Lansing Williams in the September 2011 edition of The CPA Journal. The article primarily discusses the corporate fraud of Phar-Mor Inc. and the potential effects the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 could have had on this fraud if the act would have been in existence at the time of the fraud. In addition to summarizing this article, I will discuss my views of how the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 could have potentially prevented the fraud of Phar-Mor Inc. and other major companies like Waste Management and Enron that participated in corporate fraud prior to the existence of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is legislation drafted by Senator Paul Sarbanes, a Democrat from Maryland, and Representative Michael Oxley, a Republican from Ohio. This legislation was created as a result of numerous fraudulent corporate instances prior to 2002 which resulted in weakened US markets and little to no trust from investors. The general purpose of this legislation was to implement new rules in the accounting industry that hold higher level accounting personnel accountable in accounting schemes and regain the confidence of investors as it pertains to the US market in hopes that the market will strengthen as a result of the new rules (Bing, 2007). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which I may refer to as SOX moving forward, is made up of eleven titles and various sections within these titles (United States Code, Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, 2002). Some of the titles and sections that are of importance to the fraud of Phar-Mar Inc., Waste

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