US

Sarbanes-Oxley Act tackles corporate fraud and accounting oversights

Clifford Chance US LLP

In the last six months both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives passed separate and differing pieces of legislation concerning corporate fraud and accounting oversight. On July 24 2002 a joint House-Senate committee approved a bill entitled the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the Act) that reflects a compromise between the previous House and Senate measures, and is some respects goes further in penalising corporate wrongdoers than either of the original measures had proposed. The Act was subsequently approved by the House and the Senate, and President Bush signed the Act into law on 30 July 2002.