Plenty of focus on whistleblower Mark Livingston's fight with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, hailed as one of the first cases decided by a federal court under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Livingston claims he...

With closing arguments in the Enron trial set to begin today, it's worth looking at the reaction over the last week to the news that Judge Lake dealt Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling a serious blow when...

Sarbanes-Oxley has not only resulted in boom times for accountants.It's also helped create an expert witness industry worth $6 to $8 billion a year. Experts are charging anything from $650,000...

Now she tells us!!! Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick has called for a consumer boycott of Nestle products, such as Perrier, Kit-Kat and Nescafe. She apparently has deep ethical concerns about...

This week's Securities and Exchange Commission-Public Company Accounting Oversight Board roundtable on Sarbanes-Oxley was really shown up for what it really was intended to be.Let's not kid...

If you're looking around for a neat handbook on corporate governance issues and requirements under US securities law, Bowne & Co are offering a free guide to corporate governance issues.As a...

With regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission-Public Company Accounting Oversight Board roundtable telling business that relief from Section 404 is on its way (without giving specifics)...

Q: What's the difference between a corporate crook and a juvenile delinquent?A: One is a ruthless rebel who holds the laws and rules of society in absolute contempt and who doesn't give a...

The Government Accountability Office report on Sarbanes-Oxley makes interesting reading.For a start, the US Government auditors identify the obvious: that the costs of compliance with Section 404 of...

Just came across an interesting blog EthicsCrisis.com focusing on global business ethics.Check out the link that allows you to confess ethical breaches, anonymously.Some of the confessions are not so...

The problem with Sarbanes-Oxley is that it's tailor-made for big corporations. Hardly surprising, given that it was framed in response to the collapse and fraud at giant corporations like Enron...

What do Bob Geldof and Nick Mason (drummer and percussionist with Pink Floyd) have in common?They are both company directors and part of a trend now to recruit celebrity directors, according to the...

Conrad Black, like his hero Napoleon is facing his Waterloo with the US District Judge Amy St. Eve who will preside over Black's fraud trial next year, indicating she might run criminal...

We live in challenging times. Terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid and London, the Asian tsunami, wild hurricanes and cyclones have created a new challenge for organisations. Suddenly, the...

The defence argument at the Enron trial, which came up with the answer to the so-called Enron corporate murder mystery , was one gamble. Putting former CEOs Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay in the witness...

The fallout continues over the generous $400 million payout to former Exxon Mobil chief executive Lee Raymond. I blogged on the issue last month. His successor Rex Tillerson has just put up the usual...

So Sarbanes-Oxley has improved CEO transparency? Think again.CEO candor in letters to shareholders, one gauge of candid and comprehensive disclosure, has declined since Enron and Sarbanes-Oxley,...

With the Public Company Accounting Oversight facing a constitutional challenge and the ongoing push to exempt smaller companies from Section 404 requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley, the PCAOB has come out...

To paraphrase Tolstoy, all dysfunctional companies are dysfunctional in their own fashion. But after years of writing about them, I have always been struck by the same patterns coming up time and...

"As officers and Enron Corp, its subsidiaries, and its affiliated companies, we are responsible for conducting the business affairs of the companies in accordance with all applicable laws and in...