Originally published February 8 2006
New U.S businesses help companies comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Act
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
In the aftermath of the WorldCom and Enron scandals, lawmakers passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which levies (some say unnecessarily strict) regulations on corporate management, but Eve Tahmincioglu of The New York Times reports that some businesses are profiting from this measure by offering compliance certification and other methods of dealing with the Act.
New regulations that sprang from systematic fraud at those two corporations have created a cottage industry of businesses that provide consulting, accounting, computer security and other services to help companies cope with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Sarbanes-Oxley, nicknamed SOX in the financial world, requires corporate managers to evaluate internal financial controls, hire outside accountants to review those controls annually, make more information available to the public and to follow procedures to stifle fraud.
Diane Wolff transformed her financial-management business, the Blue Sage Group of Canton, Mass., into a firm that helps publicly traded companies comply with Sarbanes-Oxley, most recently introducing a compliance software package for small and medium-size businesses.
Shai Stern created Vintage Filings, also in New York, to help public firms format and file financial statements quickly and economically.
"The certification we offer helps companies decide if employees are familiar enough with SOX," he said.
For example, Telwares Communications, a procurement and invoice-processing firm for the telecommunications industry that is based in Pleasanton, Calif., needed help with Sarbanes-Oxley, so Michael Voellinger, a vice president, enrolled 15 of his employees in an intensive week of training at Mr. Anand's institute.
Regular financial filings required by the Securities and Exchange Commission through the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, also known as Edgar, have also intensified since Sarbanes-Oxley was passed.
Scott Bils, the vice president for marketing at the firm, said Scalable Software had aggressively pursued companies needing help complying with Sarbanes-Oxley's information-technology requirements, like password protection and security settings.
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