Saturday, October 08, 2011

Sarbanes-Oxley: Criminalization for False Accounting Statements


There have been multiple bank failures by public companies that filed balance sheets under penalty of criminal prosecution just weeks before they failed.  These banks had balance sheets that showed perfectly, healthy institutions.  The FDIC has documented dozens of bank failures, privately-held and publicly-traded, where those balance sheets were proven to be factually false, as the losses have been 20%, 30%, 40% or even more just a few weeks later.   It is beyond comprehension that the assets in question could have actually lost 30% or 40% of their value within that period of time.  The only explanation is that these financial statements were indeed falsified.  Sarbanes-Oxley makes this a criminal matter.  Where are the indictments against the CEOs of these institutions?  But, then again, I guess Sarbanes-Oxley doesn’t pertain to banks. 

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