Digital Commons Network^™

From Lapdog To Watchdog: Sarbanes-Oxley Section 307 And A New Role For Corporate Lawyers, Peter C. Kostant

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Internal Whistleblowing And Sarbanes-Oxley Section 806: Balancing The Interests Of Employee And Employer, Kevin Rubinstein

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Litigating Brady V. Maryland: Games Prosecutors Play, Bennett L. Gershman

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Going Private At The Intersection Of The Market And The Law, Faith Stevelman

Articles & Chapters

Delaware's fiduciary doctrine governing going private transactions by controlling stockholders is presently in disarray. Controllers generally select between single step cash-out mergers and tender offers followed by short-form mergers to do these freezeouts, and they are subject to very different equitable standards depending on the format selected. Further disarray arises because the courts' longstanding commitment to strict scrutiny in freezeouts is in tension with the popular disfavor towards private class-action litigation. This disarray threatens minority investors' interests in freezeouts, and capital market values more broadly. First, the disparities in freezeout doctrine have encouraged controllers to arbitrage the legal standards for …

Sarbanes-Oxley's Effects On Small Firms: What Is The Evidence?, Ehud Kamar, Pinar Karaca-Mandic, Eric L. Talley

Faculty Scholarship

This article presents an overview of the regulatory regime created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) and its implications for small firms. We review the available evidence in three distinct domains: compliance costs, stock price reactions, and firms' decisions to exit regulated securities markets.

The Nondischargeability Of Student Loans In Personal Bankruptcy Proceedings: The Search For A Theory, John A. E. Pottow

Articles

In fiscal year 2002, approximately 5.8 million Americans borrowed $38 billion (USD) in federal student loans. This was more than triple the $11.7 billion borrowed in 1990. As a rule of thumb, tuition has been increasing at roughly double the rate of inflation in recent years. This troubling trend of accelerating tuition, coupled with the fact that real income has stagnated for men and increased only modestly for women over the past two decades, means that more and more students are going to need to turn to borrowed money to finance their degrees absent a radical restructuring of the postsecondary …

Criminal Justice And The Challenge Of Family Ties, Dan Markel, Jennifer M. Collins, Ethan J. Leib

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article asks two basic questions: When does, and when should, the state use the criminal justice apparatus to accommodate family ties, responsibilities, and interests? We address these questions by first revealing a variety of laws that together form a string of family ties subsidies and benefits pervading the criminal justice system. Notwithstanding our recognition of the important role family plays in securing the conditions for human flourishing, we then explain the basis for erecting a Spartan presumption against these family ties subsidies and benefits within the criminal justice system. We delineate the scope and rationale for the presumption and …

The Corporate/Securities Attorney As A 'Moving Target' - Client Fraud Dilemmas, Marc I. Steinberg

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Paper analyzes the enhanced responsibilities and liability concerns that corporate/securities attorneys have in the post-Enron era. State ethical rules, SEC pronouncements, and court decisions are addressed. The ramifications of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act with respect to its impact on legal counsel also are explored. The Paper also provides insight focusing on the business attorney's role as counselor and gatekeeper when faced with the prospect of client fraud.

Laws Against Bubbles: An Experimental-Asset-Market Approach To Analyzing Financial Regulation, Erik F. Gerding

Faculty Scholarship

This article analyzes the effectiveness of proposed and actual securities, financial, and tax laws designed to prevent, or dampen the severity of asset price bubbles, including laws designed to mitigate excessive speculation. The article employs experimental asset market research to measure the effectiveness of these anti-bubble laws in correcting mispricings. Experimental asset markets represent complex simulations of stock markets in which subjects trade securities over a computer network. These markets allow scholars to test causal links between legal policies and market effects in ways that empirical research alone cannot. With these virtual markets, researchers can identify asset price bubbles-when prices …

Illuminating Secrecy: A New Economic Analysis Of Confidential Settlements, Scott A. Moss

Publications

Even the most hotly contested lawsuits typically end in a confidential settlement forbidding the parties from disclosing their allegations, evidence, or settlement amount. Confidentiality draws fierce criticism for harming third parties by concealing serious misdeeds like discrimination, pollution, defective manufacturing, and sexual abuse. Others defend confidentiality as a mutually beneficial pay-for-silence bargain that facilitates settlement, serves judicial economy, and prevents frivolous copycat lawsuits. This debate is based in economic logic, yet most analyses have been surprisingly shallow as to how confidentiality affects incentives to settle. Depicting a more nuanced, complex reality of litigation and settlement, this Article reaches several conclusions …

Finance And Accounting Outsourcing: Three Studies Related To The Ethical And Economic Dimensions Of Accounting Outsourcing, Renu V. Desai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation evaluates the economic and ethical considerations underlying the outsourcing of professional services such as finance and accounting. The dissertation is comprised of three separate, but related studies. The first study explores the adequacy of the disclosure rules recommended in the revised ethics rulings regarding disclosure of outsourcing relationships and the resulting ethical and economic repercussions for both, the AICPA members and their clients. The second study analyzes the disclosure rules recommended in the AICPA ethics rulings regarding disclosure of outsourcing relationships from an ethical standpoint. The third study adopts the perspective of the third party service provider. The …

The Culture Of Under-Enforcement: Buried Treasure, Sarbanes-Oxley And The Corporate Pirate, Lisa H. Nicholson

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Regulating After The Fact, Samuel Issacharoff

DePaul Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Generic Architecture For Insider Misuse Monitoring In It Systems, Aung Htike Phyo

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) have been widely deployed within many organisations' IT nenvorks to delect network penetration attacks by outsiders and privilege escalation attacks by insiders. However, traditional IDS are ineffective for detecting o f abuse o f legitimate privileges by authorised users within the organisation i.e. the detection of misfeasance. In essence insider IT abuse does not violate system level controls, yet violates acceptable usage policy, business controls, or code of conduct defined by the organisation. However, the acceptable usage policy can vary from one organisation to another, and the acceptability o f user activities can also change depending …

Users' Perspectives And Attitudes Towards Web Application Security, Leonard Ticualu

Theses : Honours

The Internet has become an integral part of the society in many parts of the world. However, as the Internet becoming more important and useful, the problems with Web security have also increased. More people today have experienced Web security threats such as viruses, spyware, keyloggers, and phishing; and a not insignificant number have encountered financial fraud because of the online activities they conducted. This research investigated the security concerns and level of awareness of users in regards to the use of web applications, by identifying users' concerns of web applications, examining the relationship of users' technical knowledge and users' …

The Rise Of Independent Directors In The United States, 1950-2005: Of Shareholder Value And Stock Market Prices, Jeffrey N. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Between 1950 and 2005, the composition of large public company boards dramatically shifted towards independent directors, from approximately 20% independents to 75% independents. The standards for independence also became increasingly rigorous over the period. The available empirical evidence provides no convincing explanation for this change. This Article explains the trend in terms of two interrelated developments in U.S. political economy: first, the shift to shareholder value as the primary corporate objective; second, the greater informativeness of stock market prices. The overriding effect is to commit the firm to a shareholder wealth maximizing strategy as best measured by stock price performance. …

Doctrinal Issues In Evidence And Proof, Paul F. Rothstein

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The word evidence ordinarily means the statements, events, items, or sensory perceptions that suggest the existence or nonexistence of, or truth or falsity of, another fact. Thus, one may say, “hoofbeats are evidence a horse may be passing.” Proof is similar in meaning but may connote more certainty.

Evidence can also mean the study of either (1) how people make such inferences (especially when conjoined with the word proof) or (2) how law regulates information admissibility in the judicial context. Evidence in the latter sense is the name of a standard law school course in common law countries and a …

Criminal Justice And The Challenge Of Family Ties, Dan Markel, Ethan J. Leib

Faculty Scholarship

This Article asks two basic questions: When does, and when should, the state use the criminal justice apparatus to accommodate family ties, responsibilities, and interests? We address these questions by first revealing a variety of laws that together form a string of family ties subsidies and benefits pervading the criminal justice system. Notwithstanding our recognition of the important role family plays in securing the conditions for human flourishing, we then explain the basis for erecting a Spartan presumption against these family ties subsidies and benefits within the criminal justice system. We delineate the scope and rationale for the presumption and …

Company Liability For A Life Insurance Agent's Financial Abuse Of An Elderly Client, Johnny Parker

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …