Tyco International, one of the most high-profile offenders in the corporate corruption scandals earlier this decade, settled a four-year investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission last week and paid a $50 million fine for allegations that the company’s former management schemed to inflate results by at least $1 billion over a six-year period. Without […]
Melissa Klein Aguilar
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Sentencing Panel Waives Cooperation Clause
In a move expected to ease the pressure on corporations under federal investigation to waive attorney-client privilege, the U.S. Sentencing Commission has voted to eliminate language from the Federal Sentencing Guidelines that requires corporations to waive the privilege if they want to earn credit for cooperation with investigators. The amendment was prompted by extensive criticism […]
Posted inData Privacy
Uncertainty Persists For Overseas Hotlines
Overseas whistleblower hotlines still flummox corporate compliance officers on both sides of the Atlantic, nearly a year after French authorities first questioned the legality of the hotlines in that country and sent a cornerstone of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance into jurisdictional limbo. In particular, some tensions still appear to exist between French data protection laws and whistleblower […]
Posted inInternal Controls
404 Exemption Plan Proceeds With Tweaks; More
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s closely watched Advisory Committee On Smaller Public Companies made some last-minute additions last week to recommendations on exempting small businesses from Sarbanes-Oxley’s Section 404, including the idea that some form of “indexing” be included for its suggested revenue filters. Committee member Richard Jaffee, chairman of the board of Oil-Dri Corp., […]
Posted inInternal Controls
More Evidence On Lower SOX Costs Over Time
As businesses not yet required to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act await their fate, two new surveys released this month show second-year compliance costs eased somewhat for companies. The reports, from Financial Executives International and CRA International, come as an advisory committee to the Securities and Exchange Commission puts the final touches […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Comments Pile Up On Compensation Reform
While the comment period on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed rules on executive compensation and related party disclosure came to a close this week, it appears the battle over what Corporate America will eventually have to tell the public about what they pay their executives and directors is just ramping up. The SEC’s 370-page […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Fever Pitch: Decision On 404 Exemptions Looms
The debate over exempting small companies from the most onerous provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act will reach new heights this week, as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s special committee considering the idea reviews Corporate America’s comments and finishes up its recommendations. Wrapping up a 13-month effort, the SEC’s Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Company will […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Funds Decide To Endure Registration Rule
Well, it’s taken two years to find out, but perhaps fears that hedge fund advisers would dodge disclosure rules from the Securities and Exchange Commission were overblown after all. When the SEC adopted the rules amid significant controversy in 2004—forcing the secretive hedge funds to register as investment advisers and admit the size of their […]
Posted inInternal Controls
SEC Talks Executive Pay; Campos’ SOX 404 Vision
Two weeks in to his tenure at the Securities and Exchange Commission, new Director of Corporation Finance John White gave companies a hint about what they ought to do now to prepare for the SEC’s new rules on executive compensation and related disclosure. While businesses don’t yet know which components of the proposals will emerge […]
Posted inInternal Controls
“Year Two” SOX 404 Audit Fees Down
Corporate audit fees, which soared by punishing amounts in 2004 as companies struggled with their first year of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, may be levelling off or even decreasing as executives and external auditors alike build on their second year of experience in 2005. A Compliance Week analysis of audit and non-audit fees reported in recently filed […]