...Effect of Unethical Behavior ACC/291 September 2, 2012 Effect of Unethical Behavior A quote from Ray Beier, a partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, puts the idea of ethical behavior and its effect on financial statements into perspective. He states, “From the corporate scandals, we now realize that accounting was too rules-based, where it needs to be more principles-or objectives-based” (Bisoux, 2005, p. 24). Corporations had been so concerned with financial gain that the idea that there was a need for better internal controls did not exist. As long as the corporation was providing financial statements that presented the picture of a company continuing to grow and make money, it was assumed that the company ran smoothly. As a result, it was far too easy for corporations to overstate the value of assets or understate liabilities causing the true value of a corporation to be undiscovered. Some unethical behavior on an individual level, would be insider trading, kickbacks fraud and, as seen far too many times, the manipulation of the financial markets. The Enron Corporation was the perfect example of this unethical behavior and its discovery led to the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The company used systematic and planned accounting fraud to misrepresent the corporation’s financial standing and, as a result, led to its shocking downfall. The company’s stock fell so sharply and quickly that many stockholders were caught off guard and lost millions of dollars...
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...Effects of Unethical Behavior ACC/291 One may describe accounting as a type of language or mechanism that provides information about the financial position of a company. The information provided in the financial statements of accounting is used by investors to determine whether or not to invest in an organization, and used by creditors to determine whether or not a loan should be granted. The mere fact that these financial statements are important and involves money opens doors for unethical practice and behavior. In the past years companies like Enron and WorldCom have been scandalize for its company’s unethical conduct in accounting. In the wake of numerous corporate scandals the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 was created to protect investors by improving the reliability and accuracy of corporates disclosure made pursuant to the securities laws, and for other purposes. Although many companies run their business honestly, others turn out to be criminals, robbing their customers’ qualm, or dragging themselves into illegal practices slowly through good intentions or ignorance. Companies may be tempted to practice unethical behavior in accounting for different reasons such as greed, opportunity, disconnection, and ignorance. Unethical practices and behaviors also include: manipulation of financial, bribery, insider trade, misuse of funds, exaggerating the value of corporate assets, exaggerating revenue, securities fraud, purposely providing erroneous information relating...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior In accounting, there are or have been situations that might lead to unethical practices and behavior. Unethical corporate behavior is caused by a variety of factors. For example, pressure from management or a Board of Directors when accountants are to meet unrealistic business objectives or deadlines is a huge factor. In addition, other factors like furthering ones career, protecting ones livelihood, working with an immoral environment, and simply the lack of consequences can cause unethical practices. It is no wonder why there have been a number of cases where it comes to reporting financial statements in a company’s stability. For example, scandals like the most recent Enron, WorldCom and Tyco disasters are just to name a few. This is why in 2002 President George W. Bush brought in a law called the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The ultimate focus of this act was to reduce chance of accounting errors, and report enduring ethical issues. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 also changed the state of the accounting profession. It affects certified public accountants in the way they process, execute, and operate for publically traded companies. The act permitted a committee called the PCAOB to investigate, public companies and their auditors. The SEC, for rectitude of companies, would manage this committee. In addition, the committee, five members, included two CPA’s and three other people who are not to have ever been CPA’s now or in the future. Furthermore, each...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Damon Jones ACC/291 December 11 2013 Harri Eloranta Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis The purpose of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is to restore public confidence in both public accounting and publicly traded securities as well as promote better ethical business practices through greater executive awareness and accountability (Siegel, Franz, & O'Shaughnessy, 2010). In the 1990s, many big companies had misleading and outright fraudulent activity on their account financial statements. Essentially, multiple publicly traded companies jacked up their stock prices by “publishing false or deceptive financial statements” according to (Lasher, 2008). The word ethics has many different means to different individuals or groups; however, ethic is a moral principle or set of moral values held by an individual or group (Dictionary.reference, 2013). Unethical behavior forms from an individual’s personal gain or a business trying to make the business look more profitable than it is. One way that companies mislead investors, by using their own accountant doing the books. When an accountant that works for the company does their books without anyone outside of that company overseeing them, gives them a lot of room to move figures around. The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 is an overseer and protector for investors. The Act has many effects of interest to financial service professionals. It increases the reliability...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Prior to 2002, there were no major regulations that were enforced to maintain lawful ethical accounting practices. Since this was the case, there were no internal controls and thus was a leading cause that enable large corporation to commit fraud by altering books to show more profitability. Due to the overstating of profit in these large companies, investors were provided false information which made their want to invest in these corporations more. An example of a corporation that did this was Enron. Enron Corporation was an American energy company that was based in Houston, Texas. It was one of the world’s leaders in electricity, natural gas, pulp and paper, and communications. Enron reported financial conditions were sustained by systematic and planned accounting fraud. There were several reports that involved irregular accounting procedures which bordered on fraud. These reports were between Enron and their accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. Enron’s stock eventually plunged from $90 a share to $.30 a share. What was once considered a great stock was now a disastrous even in the financial world. All of this was brought to a head when Enron revealed that much of its profits were the result of deals with special purposes entities (Davis, Donna. 2011). Therefore the results were the any debts or losses that Enron suffered were not reported on financial statements. These unethical practices...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis University of Phoenix Principles of Accounting 2 ACC/291 May 27, 2012 Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis In this paper I will identify situations that might lead to unethical practices and behavior in accounting. I will also examine the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on financial statements. Since the Enron scandal at the end of 2001 there have been several reports of unethical practices as well as poor behavior. So what exactly leads someone to report false information? In most cases that I have seen it usually begins with minor accounting infractions. When companies don’t perform well financially, stock holders may lose millions of dollars on their investments. The person in charge may decide to falsify the figures when reporting them to insure their position within their company. I believe the feel they can correct the numbers before anyone would notice. On the other hand, some CEO’s and financial officers are make bonuses and profits when they show how well a company is doing. Their own personal greed is the only thing that concerns them no matter how well the company is doing. It might be several top executives involved to just a couple of individuals, however the people who pay for their unethical decisions are the stock holders, employees and the public. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted July 29, 2002 and was named after U. S. Senator Paul Sarbanes and U. S. Representative Michael...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Chris May 6, 2013 Acc 291 Judith Vargas University of Phoenix I am going to explain in this paper some situations that might lead to unethical accounting and how we can identify some of the unethical practices in accounting. In an article that I read it talked about how when the economy is down that a lot of companies enforce ethics and make their ethical policies even better, but at the same time the article also states that when the economy is booming does it relax it ethical policies and let things pass. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) has greatly helped to make company’s financial statements a lot better in making sure the companies are reporting all their earnings and expenses and so forth. The goal of SOX was to make companies and employees behave ethically; however, whether that has worked or not is questionable. Many argue that the implementation and ongoing requirements of Sarbanes Oxley and other laws are costly, time consuming, and as yet ineffective. Some say that SOX, “in many instances law has at best led to a culture of compliance rather than a culture of integrity. Even more disappointing is that too often the very activities Sarbanes Oxley were designed to prevent continue to slip past regulators until it is too late and the damage incurred (Hazels 2010)”. Some signs that I can think of, of a company being unethical is that they are struggling to pay back debts and these debts are not being...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Christina Canfield August 4, 2013 ACC/291 Vanessa J. McCall Effects of Unethical Behavior In 2002 the congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The first thing is to understand what the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is and what it does. This paper will also view one article about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. To see how the Sarbanes-Oxley Act effect companies this paper will discuss the environment of firms before the act was passed. The question this paper will address it how the Sarbanes-Oxley Act affects auditing firms. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was created to keep accountants firms and businesses honest with accounting documents. According to Jelinek, K., & Jelinek, R. (2010) article there are six specific sections within the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that effect just the client’s role as a buyer and the audit firm’s role as a seller. The six specific sections are 201: Prohibited Auditor Activities, 203: Audit Partner Rotation, 204: Auditor Reports to Audit Committees, 206: Conflicts of Interest, 301 Public Company Audit Committees, and 407 Disclosure of Audit Committee Financial Expert. Each of these affects the auditor’s relationship with the company they are auditing and the other way around. Before the Sarbanes-Oxley act the accounting firm’s environment was configured to the firm’s perspectives on how best to approach the auditor-client exchange. The audit firms were also sale-oriented. Because the audit firms were sales-oriented the firms would reject...
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...Looking from different perspectives on how businesses can rise and fall from unethical accounting practices. When you look over businesses such as Enron and Washington Mutual bank you can see the hard lessons of what they had to endure and the end result of the chaos. Take a look for example Washington Mutual they were the one of the greatest banks in America their portfolio was one of the largest. But after acquiring so many mortgage loans it was way too much for the company to handle. Washington Mutual acquired so much liquidity it was over flowing and they could no longer meet the heavy demand. There were some speculations that the investors could have been on using some of the funds towards to downward spiral with faulty mortgage loans. Taking a look into the company Enron, there were so many infractions made within the company it was only a matter of time before they were found out. Between the embezzlement charges by the Enron executives which led into receiving funds unethically to fund their employees. From there it was investigated that money was being spent for personal reasons for the executives and the employees. The major concern to come into play was receiving large amounts of funds from an unknown investor. There was no ethical way that Enron could prove legally where they were receiving their funds and where exactly they were going. No matter what the issues are that arise in a company all actions and procedures must have some code of ethics in place to where...
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...surgeries in the United States. Not only the largest provider of outpatient surgeries in the United States but also the largest diagnostic and rehabilitative health care service in the United States. This was until March 19, 2003, when the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the company and Richard Scrushy with fraudulent account reporting of company finances. Scrushy and other executives from the finance and accounting departments (15 total) were later indicted in November 4, 2003. Richard Scrushy became the first CEO of any Fortune 500 company to be tried under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 for any accounting fraud. During court proceedings other practices involving HealthSouth were uncovered. Things such as unethical behavior and corporate governance involving the Board of Directors (banks and creditors were suspected to be involved but were not indicted, only civil suits). Richard Scrushy was charged with money laundering, conspiracy, securities fraud, overstating HealthSouth's earnings, and 81 more counts. "The Commission's complaint, which was filed in the federal district court in Birmingham, Ala., alleged that since 1999, at the insistence of Scrushy, HealthSouth systematically overstated its earnings by at least $1.4 billion dollars. This was because they needed to meet or exceed Wall Street earning expectations" (n/a, 2013). Prosecutors believed that Scrushy intentionally allowed his financers and accountants to commit this fraud in order to...
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...One situation that may lead to unethical practices and behavior in accounting is a toxic corporate culture. Simply put a corporate culture defines the way we do things here. Some of the most important factors shaping a corporate culture are the behavior of leaders and the leadership style prominent in the company. If ethics and integrity are not actively practiced and not just words on a Code of Ethics, the company is very prone to unethical practices, including financial reporting. Integrity and ethics are delicate jewels. Building integrity in leaders and their organizations takes time, continual effort and can not be feigned. It must be felt in the gut, in the core beliefs that being honest and trustworthy is the right business practice. Accountability is the foundation for authentic business relationships. At least it forces the process of identifying and resolving issues. Authentic people take full and complete ownership for their lives, their choices, thoughts, feelings and actions, without blame or faultfinding. Take the classic example of Enron. They had a Code of Ethics that addressed its Vision and Values platform RICE (Respect, Integrity, Communication, and Excellence) values statement. At the time, some thought it was a model that other companies should follow. The problem was that this model code of ethics was repeatedly violated by executives. Enron's accounting problems and subsequent bankruptcy did not emerge out of the blue, nor was there any single identifiable...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis ACC/291 This paper will analysis different situations that might lead to unethical practices and behavior in accounting. This paper will also examine the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on financial statements. Accounting could be described as a type of instrument or dialectal put in order to provide information with regards to the financial position of an organization or business. This type of information is very important to investors as it gives them important and detailed information that could turn out to be the determining factor as to their decisions to invest or not to invest in a specific organization. Consequently, it is not unusual to find unethical behavior in accounting as unethical practices come in different practices. Different situations that might lead to unethical practices in accounting could include misrepresentative financial analysis in order to obtain personal gains, mismanagement of funds, embellishing revenue, purposely providing wrong information in regards to expenses, embellishing the value of corporate assets, purposely providing wrong information in regards to liabilities, bribery, manipulation of financial markets, and lastly inside trading. According to Osanyin 2008 “Two well-known examples of unethical practices in accounting are those of the 2002 Enron / Andersen and the WorldCom scandal. Both of these companies were involved in unethical accounting practices.” Although Enron...
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...Article Analysis on Unethical Behavior and its Effects Article Analysis on Unethical Behavior and its Effects ACC 291 Article Analysis on Unethical Behavior and its Effects Possible functions and actions resulting in dishonest tactics and unethical behavior within accounting are obvious. These kinds of actions are usually in breach of the Sarbares Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). An available article inside the university student library website is going to be examined to be able to determine possible elements resulting in dishonest practices plus behavior. This content examined is known to as “Becoming a far more Relational Firm inside the Publish-Sarbans-Oxley Era”. As shown by the content, the effects of SOX have altered company practices in accounting which companies now use third party auditing services (Jelinek, Jelinek, 2010). The SOX act has changed conditions by which to disallow a business to purchase or trade services straight to business employees (Jelinek, Jelinek, 2010). This has triggered companies needing to go a third party panel to be able to purchase and trade services (Jelinek, Jelinek, 2010). The act also necessitates the third party auditor agencies to resale from services shortly after five years and not allow them to seek employment having a previous client within of the year of last audit (Jelinek, Jelinek, 2010). These brand new rules have triggered the companies to possess very strict rules of operation methods. Using the information acquired within...
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...Effects of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis ACC/291 July 8, 2012 Effects of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Ethical practices and behaviors are different for everyone. In order to identify what might lead to unethical practices and behaviors in accounting, it is necessary to examine who is in control. Some individual may look at what can be done versus what are legally acceptable accounting principles and behaviors. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was enacted by United State Congress to protect investors from the possibility of fraudulent accounting activities by corporations. This created a world wind of anxiety for corporate executives. Section 302, a mandate which require senior management to certify the accuracy of the reported financial statement. Corporations were mandated with strict reforms to improve financial disclosures and prevent accounting fraud. Internal controls by management were of special concern and so a section of the Act called Section 404 was imperative for upper management. They must not only certify the company’s financial reports, but must now take full responsibility for any erroneous or misleading statements. Management and auditors must establish internal controls and reporting methods on the adequacy of those controls. For publicly traded companies, Section 404 had costly implications, as it is expensive to establish and maintain the required internal controls. According to Investopedia.com, the scandals with Enron...
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...ACC291 Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Ethics has long been a word that has several different meanings to different people. With most it means what “should” be done in various situations. It does not necessarily mean that it is illegal not to do what it considered ethical. Throughout history people have tried to justify the things they have done to make it seem as they had the best interest of those around them at heart. Unethical behavior can be exhibited in many areas of our lives such as in our communities, churches, and especially in our businesses in the accounting office. Life is an ever-pressuring force that sometimes will contribute to unethical behaviors in the accounting field. Sometimes those that exhibit unethical behavior in accounting will do so in an effort to keep their jobs. They may feel that if they don’t conform and get the numbers that their supervisor wants they can be replaced. Others may do it for personal gain; it is possible that they will get kickbacks if the company does well. This can be done if they overstate the value of the company’s assets and/or underreporting the liabilities. This behavior can make a company look more profitable than it really is and can cause millions of people to invest and ultimately lose their investments based on a fudged report. In the accounting field there are many unethical practices that can lead to hardship in the life of many. Many of these practices were brought out of the shadow when Enron...
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