Ed Royce: “Last year my colleagues and I on the conference committee for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act sent to the President a bill that…”

“Last year my colleagues and I on the conference committee for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act sent to the President a bill that included tough new criminal penalties for corporate malefactors. I think at that time we took a number of steps that were important. We drastically increased the sentencing guidelines for securities fraud, for document shredding, for mail and wire fraud. I think Congress provided a strong deterrent for many white-collar criminals that would misrepresent the true financial health of their companies. By passing this legislation, I think we send a serious message to Wall Street and to Main Street that these corporate criminals would be dealt with as harshly as other criminals. I think today Congress has the opportunity to finish the task of preventing corporate malfeasance by agreeing to pass this bill, H.R. 975. This bill may not have everything we want in terms of how it is phrased, but included in this bill I think is a sensible provision that sharply limits to $125,000 the homestead exemption that many CEOs and corporate officers have used to shield their assets from creditors after they plunder their shareholders' wealth.”