Fines totaling $20 million that were issued last month against Ford Motor Co. for violating federal customs laws highlight the need for companies that import goods to be aware of potential consequences under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of being lax in their customs compliance.
Although the conduct by Ford that was the subject of the two recent cases took place more than a decade before SOX became law in 2002, the behavior is the type that could conceivably reflect on a company’s internal controls in the current regulatory climate, notes Mark Zolno, a partner with the law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman in Chicago.
