Whistleblowing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Whistleblowing - Research Paper Example nzi scheme in 2009 – discuss their causes, analyze the importance of whistleblowing and find out the implications that this practice has had on corporate governance globally. At the end of 2001, Enron’s filing for bankruptcy made it the largest corporate bankruptcy in the history of the United States. This fall from being the most innovative company as per Fortunes Most Admired Companies survey was catastrophic. Enron’s misconduct were brought to the fore by Sherron Watkins, a former vice president who had previously warned Enron’s chairman that its current aggressive accounting tactics were nontransparent and would come back and haunt the organization. From her investigations Watkins became increasingly alarmed as it became apparent that Enron was using accounting loopholes, special purpose entities, and poor financial reporting to misrepresent earnings by hiding billions in debt from projects. Enron was a classic case of audit failure which forced the US government to come up with legislation to prevent such scandals from future occurrence. In 2002, WorldCom overtook Enron as the largest corporate bankruptcy in US history – a record that has since been broken by Lehman Brothers in 2008. WorldCom, like Enron, was also involved in use of fraudulent accounting techniques that classified operating costs as capital expenditures and inflated revenues through phony accounting entries to create a facade of financial growth and profitability. Even though the WorldCom board reacted swifter than Enron in dealing with the masterminds of this fraud, it still took the courage of Cynthia Cooper to blow the whistle on WorldCom's unscrupulous financial practices. In reaction to these scandals, the US government enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 together with several amendments to the U.S. stock exchanges’ regulations. The new rules included different provisions whose purpose was to ensure alignment of incentives of corporate insi ders with those of investors, and to reduce the likelihood of corporate misconduct and fraud. For example, the new rules mandated exchange regulations to require a majority of independent directors on corporate boards and independence of the board committees that choose new directors and compensate managers (Chhaochharia & Grinstein, 2007). This act also included provisions that protect whistleblowers by forcing companies to create dedicated mechanisms to record and track information provided by employees both anonymously and confidentially (Eaton & Akers, 2007). The third whistleblower case is somewhat different from the Enron and WorldCom cases with the whistleblower being an individual not operating within the company that committed the fraud. In this instance, Harry Markopolos took it upon himself to conduct an independent financial fraud investigation for close to a decade to uncover evidence that Bernie Madoff's wealth management business was nothing but a grand Ponzi sche me. Markopolos probed Madoff’s operation and kept filing formal complaints at the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) to have Madoff’s hedge fund investigated. The SEC never acted on Markopolos’ tips until 2008. Bernard Madoff Securities firm pitched investors a strategy he called ‘split strike conversion’

Artifact Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Artifact - Essay Example The object has an approximate height of 5 inches; the widest portion of its body has a width of 4 inches, and the three legs have equal height of 3.5 inches. The object’s width is much bigger than its height and one can inscribe it within a form of a rectangle. The primary raw material used to produce the object is wood. The top part is in a circular shape and is firm since it is of a thick wood material. The thickness of this top part is of approximately 2 inches. The surface area of the top part is big enough to allow for anybody sit comfortably on the chair. The legs are firm enough and forms a u-shape to enable them support the weight of the top part firmly and therefore if anyone sits on the stool no matter how heavy he or she is chances of the stool breaking are limited. The wood materials used to construct the object are curved smooth. The object’s top part has two-fit horizontal lines at the part where the top rests and joins the three legs and the other line is at the surface where an individual sits. When one views this object from a side the stool seems to present some V-shapes formed by each two legs. The objects legs are separate from one another at an equal interval and points downwards supporting the top surface. The legs are thick enough to ensure maximum support of the weight of the top part, which seems to be heavy. When one looks at the object from its top, the stool’s top surface seems to present a disc-shape. This means that much of the weight exerted on the stool is supported by the core and the central part of the stool and that why the legs are joined at the outermost part of the top surface for the purpose of maintain balance when an individual sits on the object. This object however consists of four distinctive parts, which include the top body and the three legs. While the legs of the object are in the form of a long rod, its upper portion is in a disc-shape. The top of the object is in