Digital Commons Network^™

Ida Financial Education: Qualitative Impacts, Barbara O’Neill

Journal of Extension

This article reports qualitative impacts of a 16-hour Extension financial education program for Individual Development Account (IDA) participants. IDAs are matched savings accounts designed to help limited resource individuals save for goals that enhance long-term financial security. The reported here study provides evidence that a measure of program success, beyond IDA savings deposits, is providing learners with skills to make sound financial decisions. Six key themes emerged from participants' anecdotes: (a) increased financial awareness, (b) participant empowerment, (c) specific behavior changes, (d) increased personal control, (e) impacts on participants' family, and (f) evidence of financial education classes as a social …

An Examination Of The Determinants And Contents Of Corporate Voluntary Disclosure Of Management's Responsibilities For Financial Reporting, Samir M. El-Gazzar, James M. Fornaro, Rudy A. Jacob

Faculty Working Papers and Articles

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (S-O Act) of 2002 requires principal officers to certify under oath to the veracity of information contained in SEC filings and opine on the effectiveness of the internal control system. This study examines the determinants and contents of corporate voluntary disclosure of management's responsibilities during the five-year period preceding the S-O Act. We predict that the voluntary disclosure of management's responsibilities for financial information signals certain incentives and characteristics of the reporting firm that are relevant to financial statement users and regulators. Consistent with our predictions, our findings reveal significant differences between issuing and non-issuing firms as …

Enron’S Houdini – How They (Almost) Mastered The Illusion Of Prosperity And Profitability, Neal F. Newman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

United States V. Scrushy And Its Impact On Criminal Prosecutions Under The Certification Requirements Of Sarbanes-Oxley, Walter Trey Stock

Texas Wesleyan Law Review

This Note is divided into three parts. Part I will discuss the Sarbanes-Oxley Act itself, including an overview of the political firestorm that motivated its enactment. Part I will also detail the Act's certification requirement and the penalties for noncompliance. And, finally, Part I will set the stage for United States v. Scrushy by detailing the considerable success the Department of Justice had realized in prosecuting white-collar criminals leading up to Scrushy. Part II will discuss the background of HealthSouth and Richard Scrushy. It will illustrate the government's case against Scrushy and how the government believed the HealthSouth scam was …

The New Global Financial Landscape: Why Egregious International Corporate Fraud Should Be Cognizable Under The Alien Tort Claims Act, Joel Slawotsky

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

No abstract provided.

The Cowl - V. 71 - N. 4 - Sept 21, 2006

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 71 - Number 4 - September 21, 2006. 24 pages.

The Ethics Of Managing Short-Term Earnings: Business Managers And Business Students Rate Earnings Management Practices – Implications For Academia, Don E. Giacomino, Jodi L. Gissel, Michael D. Akers

Accounting Faculty Research and Publications

In 1990, Bruns and Merchant surveyed the readership of the Harvard Business Review (HBR). Their survey asked HBR readers to rate the acceptability of earnings management practices. Prior to that study, researchers and accounting practitioners paid little attention to the morality of short-term earnings management. However, in the wake of highly publicized financial frauds and failures, the profession and academic journals have emphasized the importance of the concepts of earnings quality and earnings management. The Bruns and Merchant survey provided 13 earnings management situations and asked the HBR readers to rate the acceptability of those practices. In this study, we …

Why Do Firms Manage Their Earnings?, Zeeshan Ahmed

Business Review

The topic of corporate earnings management has not only generated a great deal of media attention but it also has become a source of serious concern to regulators and policymakers. In the wake of the events that shook investors’ confidence in the American financial reporting system in late 2001 and early 2002, the earnings management practices of firms have come under fire by shareholders groups, institutional investors and the financial press alike. To some extent, regulators have responded by proposing and enacting new rules and regulations1. Likewise, accounting and financial researchers are increasingly probing into this topic. Prior studies identify …

Christopher Cox Senate Testimony: Accounting Irregularities At Fannie Mae, Christopher Cox

Documents

No abstract provided.

Responses By The Federal Communications Commission To Worldcom's Accounting Fraud, Warren G. Lavey

Federal Communications Law Journal

WorldCom's disclosure of billions of dollars of financial fraud on June 25, 2002 challenged the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") in several major ways. The FCC proclaimed its commitment to enforce its rules to protect consumers against service discontinuance as well as the priority of rooting out corporate fraud. The FCC's rules required WorldCom to file accurate financial information and to show that it had financial and character qualifications necessary to hold FCC licenses. Despite numerous related proceedings and other actions in 2001 and early 2002, the FCC had not detected nor deterred WorldCom's fraud. After the disclosure, WorldCom continued its …

Development Of A Malicious Insider Composite Vulnerability Assessment Methodology, William H. King

Theses and Dissertations

Trusted employees pose a major threat to information systems. Despite advances in prevention, detection, and response techniques, the number of malicious insider incidents and their associated costs have yet to decline. There are very few vulnerability and impact models capable of providing information owners with the ability to comprehensively assess the effectiveness an organization's malicious insider mitigation strategies. This research uses a multi-dimensional approach: content analysis, attack tree framework, and an intent driven taxonomy model are used to develop a malicious insider Decision Support System (DSS) tool. The DSS tool's utility and applicability is demonstrated using a notional example. This …

Sec Chairman, Chris Cox, Speech At Joint News Conference With Ofheo; Washington, Dc, Christopher Cox

Documents

No abstract provided.

Paper Session Iv: Development And Delivery Of Coursework - The Legal/Regulatory/Policy Environment Of Cyberforensics, John W. Bagby, John C. Ruhnka

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper describes a cyber-forensics course that integrates important public policy and legal issues as well as relevant forensic techniques. Cyber-forensics refers to the amalgam of multi-disciplinary activities involved in the identification, gathering, handling, custody, use and security of electronic files and records, involving expertise from the forensic domain, and which produces evidence useful in the proof of facts for both commercial and legal activities. The legal and regulatory environment in which electronic discovery takes place is of critical importance to cyber-forensics experts because the legal process imposes both constraints and opportunities for the effective use of evidence gathered through …

Public Courts Versus Private Justice: It's Time To Let Some Sun Shine In On Alternative Dispute Resolution, Laurie Kratky Dore

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In her article, Public Courts versus Private Justice: It's Time to Let Some Sun Shine in on Alternative Dispute Resolution, Professor Laurie Doré explores the divergent attitudes toward confidentiality in litigation and confidentiality in alternative dispute resolution. In adjudicating even seemingly private disputes, a court balances the legitimate need for confidentiality against any countervailing public interest in disclosure. A strong presumption of public access attaches to judicial records and proceedings and good cause must support any protective, sealing, or confidentiality order of a court. Today, however, an increasing number of disputes that would otherwise be litigated before a judge …

Determining The Level Of Network Security Awareness Of Utc Students Living On Campus, Alma Cemerlic

Honors Theses

While information technology divisions in various schools often conduct surveys on general computer use, almost no studies have been done that directly targeted the level of Internet security awareness among college students. The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), a not-for-profit, public-private partnership focused on increasing online security awareness, in collaboration with the Government and the Internet industry, organized a number of different projects designed to promote "safe online practices" among college students. However, since research has not been done to investigate the relationship between students' demographics and their Internet security awareness, it is not possible to tell how effective these …

Enron And The Special Purpose Entity. Use Or Abuse? The Real Problem - The Real Focus, Neal F. Newman

ExpressO

In December of 2001, Enron Corporation filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code; one of the largest corporate bankruptcy filings at that time. When the investigations commenced and the tangled Enron web was unraveled, it was discovered that Enron had perpetrated a very sophisticated form of accounting fraud through its repeated use of what are referred to as Special Purpose Entities (“SPEs”). In their most basic forms, SPEs are business entities formed for the purpose of conducting a well specified activity such as construction of a gas pipeline, or collection of a specific group of accounts …

Notice Requirements: Common Themes And Differences In The Regulatory And Legislative Responses To Data Security Breaches, Satish M. Kini, James T. Shreve

North Carolina Banking Institute

No abstract provided.

Vol. 4, No. 03 (March/April 2006)

Indiana Law Update

No abstract provided.

Penny Wise, Pound Foolish: Why Investors Would Be Foolish To Pay A Penny Or A Pound For The Protections Provided By Sarbanes-Oxley, Cory L. Braddock

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sarbanes-Oxley's Structural Model To Encourage Corporate Whistleblowers, Richard E. Moberly

ExpressO

Recent corporate scandals demonstrate that rank-and-file employees often remain silent in the face of significant fraud. This silence is unfortunate because corporate employees have inside knowledge of misconduct that gives them an information advantage over more traditional corporate monitors, such as independent directors and government regulators. To address this problem, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act utilized a new approach that encourages employee whistleblowers to disclose information about corporate wrongdoing. This approach, which Professor Richard Moberly labels the “Structural Model,” requires that corporations provide a standardized channel for employees to report organizational misconduct to official monitors within the corporation. This Article offers an …

Legislation And Legitimation: Congress And Insider Trading In The 1980s, Thomas W. Joo

ExpressO

Legislation and Legitimation:

Congress and Insider Trading in the 1980s

Abstract

Orthodox corporate law-and-economics holds that American corporate and securities regulation has evolved inexorably toward economic efficiency. That position is difficult to square with the fact that regulation is the product of government actors and institutions. Indeed, the rational behavior assumptions of law-and-economics suggest that those actors and institutions would tend to place their own self-interest ahead of economic efficiency. This article provides anecdotal evidence of such self-interest at work. Based on an analysis of legislative history—primarily Congressional hearings—this article argues that Congress had little interest in the economic policy …

The George-Anne, Georgia Southern University

The George-Anne

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Recrafting The Jurisdictional Framework For Private Rights Of Action Under The Federal Securities Laws, Jeffrey T. Cook

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recrafting The Jurisdictional Framework For Private Rights Of Action Under The Federal Securities Laws, Jeffrey T. Cook

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Implementation Of Sarbanes-Oxley: New Rules For Lawyers And What Lawyers Think, Olga Yevglevskaya-Wayne

ExpressO

This paper discusses practical implications of Sarbanes-Oxley for lawyers. Emphasis is on the new federal rules of professional responsibility the Act sets up. The paper includes the views of various renowned practitioners interpreting and using these rules. The paper also contains suggestions for how the Securities and Exchange Commission could potentially improve those areas that are proving problematic for attorneys so as to better effectuate the purpose of this major new law, in light of its legislative history and intent, which are also discussed in the paper.

Identity Theft And Solicitation. Criminal Gang Activity. Forensic Computer Analysis Fund. Initiative Statute.

Initiatives

Increases criminal penalties for persons convicted of specified identity theft crimes. Adds crimes involving personal identification to enumerated list of criminal gang activities. Expands definition of personal identifying information, and requires prison terms and increased fines for acquisition of such information with intent to defraud. Outlaws electronic solicitation of identifying information through misrepresentation (phishing). Expands venue in identity theft prosecutions to include county where victim resided. Creates fund to pay for analysis of electronic evidence in criminal investigations, financed through criminal fines. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local governments: …

The Historical Roots Of Regional Sentencing Variation, Ian Weinstein

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tattlers And Trail Blazers: Attorneys' Liability For Clients' Fraud, Barbara Black

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Focus, Vol. 2 No. 6, October/November/December 2006, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants. Business Valuation And Forensic & Litigation Services Section

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

The Inevitability Of A Strong Sec, Robert A. Prentice

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.