Criminal Prosecution of Managers as a Weapon against Corporate Crime essays

Criminal Prosecution of Managers as a Weapon against Corporate Crime essays Which laws are broken in the current cases at issue' Recently, a number of headline-grabbing cases, such as the accounting fraud that existed at the Enron Corporation, have highlighted the role of management at various corporations and in the financial industry, in the commission of corporate crime. The role of accountants and the major corporate accounting firms, as well as the chief financial advisors of corporations and the management personnel whom may or may not be aware of illegal accounting activities, are now under strict scrutiny by the SEC. The Securities and Exchange Commission has attempted to become more vigilant in policing and prosecuting illegal activities in recent years. (Asarita, 2002). It is illegal for companies to release fraudulent or even misleading information regarding their company's performance. (Chartier, 2002) However, to a certain extent, these companies state that their managerial, non-accounting staff must trust' what the expert accountants sayafter all, that's why the accountants are considered the experts. However, it is also alleged that managers can pressure their accountants to release fraudulent information, which is illegal. But it is difficult to prove that managers or CEOs knew that this information was fraudulent, or pressured accountants to do so after the fact. Often, the pressure process is so subtle, the SEC has difficulty knowing who knew when, and who said what. Thus, a legal Gordian knot results that is Last year, the number of accounting fraud cases investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission jumped forty-one percent, according to agency data, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in fines upon the offending companies to settle the charges. This jump is largely attributed, not simply to more creative forensic accounting techniques in discovering illegal accounting meas...