Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I am introducing the PCAOB Enforcement Transparency Act of 2011 along with Senator Grassley. One of the largest securities frauds in history began unraveling in August 2001 when an Enron vice president expressed her concern that the company might ``implode under a series of accounting scandals.'' Enron disclosed a few months later that its historical financial statements were not accurate. A subsequent restatement revealed over that $500 million in losses had gone unreported. Several other large corporate frauds followed shortly thereafter. For instance, in June 2002, WorldCom admitted that it had misrepresented its profitability to investors. The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs conducted a series of hearings on the issues that were raised by the revelations of Enron and other public companies. The hearings produced a remarkable consensus on a number of underlying causes, including weak corporate governance, a lack of accountability, and inadequate oversight of accountants charged with auditing a public company's financial statements. In order to address the gaps and structural weaknesses revealed by the investigation and hearings, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The Senate passed this legislation on a 99 to 0 vote. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act ensured that corporate officers were directly accountable for their financial reporting and for the quality of their financial statements.…”