Kenneth Lay, the former chairman of Enron was prosecuted on 11 criminal counts of making misleading statements and fraud. Jeff Skilling, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Enron was charged on 35 counts that included conspiracy wire fraud, insider trading, securities fraud, and making false statements on financial reports. Andrew Fastow, former Enron’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), faced 98 counts of money laundering, fraud, and conspiracy in connection with the improper partnerships he ran. This included a Nigerian power plant project that was aided by Merrill Lynch, an investment banking firm. However, Fastow was pled guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and the other charge was of conspiracy to commit wire and
Matt LaFlamme Bus law 9am The Sarbanes–Oxley Act, also known as SOX was enacted July 30, 2002. SOX is administered by Securities and Exchange Commission, which sets time limits for compliance and publishes rules on requirements. SOX is not a business practice and does not regulate on how a business should store their records, it defines which records need to be stored and for how long they need to be stored. SOX was enacted due to the reaction of multiple major corporate and accounting scandals, which include Enron , Tyco international and WorldCom. These scandals cost investors billions of dollars when the share prices of affected companies collapsed, and shook the publics’ faith in the security markets.
Summary of Bigger than Enron In 2001, the nation was rocked by the collapse of Enron, a multibillion-dollar corporation that employed thousands of people and had affiliations right up to and including The White House itself. With all of the fraud and mismanagement that took place under the gilded roof of Enron, the question arises as to the involvement of others in the scandal, not the least of who is the firm of Arthur Andersen. In the 1990s, more than 700 U.S. companies were forced to correct misleading financial statements as a result of accounting failures, lapses, or outright fraud. Together with Enron -- the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history -- these failures have cost investors an estimated $200 billion. What went wrong?!
Three web sites Watergate Scandal “The Watergate scandal was an American political scandal that occurred following a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington D.C. probably to steal certain information concerning the president’s illicit dealings with billionaire and aviator Howard Hughes and most probably to get information in order to black mail the Democratic Party during the election period.1” The term Watergate comes from the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. where people believed Nixon’s scandals first occurred, which was on May 28, 1972. Nixon once said that “if some of my judgments were wrong, some were wrong, they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interest of the nation.2” Whereas several hypotheses exist about the reason for the break-in, no one really knows why it was done, save perhaps Richard Nixon himself. On June 16, 1972, a security guard at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., discovered a piece of tape on the lock of the door that led to the National Democratic Headquarters. This foiled break-in
At the time of his plea, prosecutors said Grass admitted to a series of illegal activities, from backdating contracts and severance letters to misleading the company and federal investigators about a $2.6 million real estate deal. They said he also met with employees called to testify before the grand jury and encouraged them to lie. During Grass' time at the head of the Camp Hill-based company founded by his father, Alex Grass, its stock price soared as Rite Aid engaged in an aggressive expansion effort. But the grand jury said the boom years were accomplished by "massive accounting fraud, the deliberate falsification of financial statements, and intentionally false SEC filings." Less than a year after
Firestone: A Reputation Blowout The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company was founded in 1900 by Harvey Firestone in Akron, Ohio. Firestone began their long relationship with the Ford Motor Company in 1906 when Henry Ford purchased two-thousand sets of Firestone tires. In 1978, due to defective tires, Firestone was forced to recall 14.5 million tires. They also faced $500,000 in fines for concealing safety problems. Since then there has been a large number of tire recalls and has been a major problem for the tire industry for over 25 years.
The summer of 1971 found the once formidable company on the brink of disaster. Despite the nearly a $1 billion in sunk costs, Lockheed was in need of $250 million more to bring the plane to market, but its bankers would not commit without federal loan guarantees. Spokespersons for Lockheed claimed before Congress that the Tri-Star program was economically sound and that their problem was mere liquidity crisis. However, opposition to the guarantee focused on estimated break-even sales – the number of jets that would need to be sold for total revenue to cover all accumulated costs. This case illustrates the importance of NPV analysis in capital budgeting.
Over a decade ago courtrooms were saturated with litigation seeking to hold firearms manufacturers and distributors liable for damages resulting from the illegal use of their product. Ultimately, in 2005 federal legislation passed through Congress that granted
Boeing, a leading aerospace company and the maker of highly important technological innovations, has faced numerous legal issues. For example, there was a complex legal issue involving gender pay differences in 2000 and Boeing was even sued for this alleged offence (Business, 2004). Boeing decided to settle out of court regarding this matter to save them from public scrutiny even though most of the documentation was thrown out of court and key information was protected under attorney client privilege. The planning side of Boeing's management stepped in to make sure that a legal team oversaw all important documents. This saved the company millions, but if they had a better plan in place, this issue would have never resulted.
The resulting damage proved fatal during Columbia’s reentry through the earth’s atmosphere, where friction can produce temperatures of up to 3000 degrees. The damaged area succumbed to this intense heat and tore the shuttle apart over the skies of Texas. Seven astronauts lost their lives that day, and we just about lost our space program. All space shuttle flights were grounded for nearly three years while America wrestled with the decision of whether or not space exploration was worth the risks. Fortunately, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board concluded in its report that American space exploration must continue.