The Great Escape: The Unaddressed Ethical Issue of Investor Responsibility for Corporate Malfeasance

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis L. Wesley II ◽  
Hermann Achidi Ndofor

ABSTRACT:Corporate governance scholarship focuses on executive malfeasance, specifically its antecedents and consequences. Academic efforts primarily focus on prevention while practitioners are often left to hold firms and executives (including directors) accountable through a variety of sanctions. Even so, executive malfeasance still occurs even in the face of the vast resources used to monitor, control, and penalize firms and executives. In this paper, we posit equity markets do not adequately penalize firms for inaccurate earnings reports. Using a sample of 129 firms identified by the U.S. General Accounting Office for reporting fraudulent earnings in 10K filings, we found support for our assertion. Consequently, the one party who may benefit but escape accountability is firm shareholders. Moreover, we find little empirical evidence that the subset of firms sanctioned by the SEC is penalized more heavily than the full sample by markets at the time they report and correct their 10K filings. Our results raise serious questions whether such managerial opportunism can be eradicated given the apparent lack of consequences in equity markets for investors. We also question whether the SEC is able to discern between fraud and error in financial reporting and its implications.

Author(s):  
Pavel Smirnov

Specific traits of the U.S. policies in Eastern Europe in the first months of the Joe Biden presidency are pre-determined primarily by the Democrats’ desire to normalize the U.S. relationship with the major Western European allies and the EU as a whole, spoiled under Donald Trump. This task makes it necessary to abandon artificial opposing of Eastern Europe to Western Europe. The Biden administration attaches major importance to the issue of common liberal values, which creates certain problems in relations with some East European governments, like Hungary or Poland. Political and diplomatic steps of the new administration in the region, both in a bilateral format and through multilateral forums (in particular the Three Seas Initiative), have revealed, on the one hand, the U.S. desire to keep protecting the security of the region in the face of the Russian and, increasingly Chinese, challenge; on the other hand, lower priority attached to "energy wars" with Russia, gradual waiving of sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, as well as Biden's unwillingness to sacrifice relations with Germany and other Western European allies for the sake of specific interests of countries like Poland, which were conceived by the Trump administration as a counterweight to Western Europe. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 249-265
Author(s):  
Hugh Grove ◽  
Mac Clouse

Sir David Tweedy, the former chair of the International Accounting Standards Board, observed: “The scandals that we have seen in recent years are often attributed to accounting although, in fact, I think the U.S. cases are corporate governance scandals involving fraud” (Tweedy, 2007). This paper will show that many of the recent Chinese cases of fraudulent financial reporting are also really corporate governance scandals involving fraud.


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-291
Author(s):  
Manuel A. Vasquez ◽  
Anna L. Peterson

In this article, we explore the debates surrounding the proposed canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero, an outspoken defender of human rights and the poor during the civil war in El Salvador, who was assassinated in March 1980 by paramilitary death squads while saying Mass. More specifically, we examine the tension between, on the one hand, local and popular understandings of Romero’s life and legacy and, on the other hand, transnational and institutional interpretations. We argue that the reluctance of the Vatican to advance Romero’s canonization process has to do with the need to domesticate and “privatize” his image. This depoliticization of Romero’s work and teachings is a part of a larger agenda of neo-Romanization, an attempt by the Holy See to redeploy a post-colonial and transnational Catholic regime in the face of the crisis of modernity and the advent of postmodern relativism. This redeployment is based on the control of local religious expressions, particularly those that advocate for a more participatory church, which have proliferated with contemporary globalization


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 777-799
Author(s):  
O.I. Shvyreva ◽  
Z.I. Kruglyak ◽  
A.V. Petukh

Subject. This article discusses the issues related to the practice of financial reporting in the face of uncertainties caused by the coronavirus contagion, as well as the specifics of the audit strategy and formation of an audit opinion on this reporting. Objectives. The article aims to identify the quality characteristics of financial reporting prepared in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and justify the key aspects of assurance engagement completion in an extremely uncertain epidemiological and economic situation. Methods. For the study, we used an abstract-logical method, content analysis techniques, systematization, and classification. Results. Analyzing the impact of the extremely uncertain epidemiological and economic situation on financial statements, the article clarifies aspects of disclosure of events after the reporting date and threats to business continuity in the annual reporting of economic entities. The article identifies possible alternative procedures and algorithms to obtain proper evidence when it is insufficient in the face of the inability to meet certain audit standards requirements in a remote audit environment. The article defines the impact of COVID-19 risk disclosure on the structure of the audit report and opinion. Relevance. The results of the study can be used in the practical activities of economic entities that prepare financial statements in the face of significant uncertainty, as well as auditors and audit organizations.


Trictrac ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petru Adrian Danciu

Starting from the cry of the seraphim in Isaiahʹ s prophecy, this article aims to follow the rhythm of the sacred harmony, transcending the symbols of the angelic world and of the divine names, to get to the face to face meeting between man and God, just as the seraphim, reflecting their existence, stand face to face. The finality of the sacred harmony is that, during the search for God inside the human being, He reveals Himself, which is the reason for the affirmation of “I Am that I Am.” Through its hypnotic cyclicality, the profane temporality has its own musicality. Its purpose is to incubate the unsuspected potencies of the beings “caught” in the material world. Due to the fact that it belongs to the aeonic time, the divine music will exceed in harmony the mechanical musicality of profane time, dilating and temporarily cancelling it. Isaiah is witness to such revelation offering access to the heavenly concert. He is witness to divine harmonies produced by two divine singers, whose musical history is presented in our article. The seraphim accompanied the chosen people after their exodus from Egypt. The cultic use of the trumpet is related to the characteristics and behaviour of the seraphim. The seraphic music does not belong to the Creator, but its lyrics speak about the presence of the Creator in two realities, a spiritual and a material one. Only the transcendence of the divine names that are sung/cried affirms a unique reality: God. The chant-cry is a divine invocation with a double aim. On the one hand, the angels and the people affirm God’s presence and call His name and, on the other, the Creator affirms His presence through the angels or in man, the one who is His image and His likeness. The divine music does not only create, it is also a means of communion, implementing the relation of man to God and, thus, God’s connection with man. It is a relation in which both filiation and paternity disappear inside the harmony of the mutual recognition produced by music, a reality much older than Adam’s language.


Imbizo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Epongse Nkealah ◽  
Olutoba Gboyega Oluwasuji

Ideas of nationalisms as masculine projects dominate literary texts by African male writers. The texts mirror the ways in which gender differentiation sanctions nationalist discourses and in turn how nationalist discourses reinforce gender hierarchies. This article draws on theoretical insights from the work of Anne McClintock and Elleke Boehmer to analyse two plays: Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon by Bole Butake and Gilbert Doho and Hard Choice by Sunnie Ododo. The article argues that women are represented in these two plays as having an ambiguous relationship to nationalism. On the one hand, women are seen actively changing the face of politics in their societies, but on the other hand, the means by which they do so reduces them to stereotypes of their gender.


2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joann Segovia ◽  
Carol M. Jessup ◽  
Marsha Weber ◽  
Sheri Erickson

A very significant change to the accounting profession occurred in 2002 when the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was enacted. This legislation had a significant impact on corporations and their audit firms. The objective was to improve corporate governance and its quality of financial reporting to improve investor confidence. This paper provides instructors with a background on SOX and suggests readings and activities that reflect the requirements of SOX as it relates to the AIS environment and the analysis of internal controls. These activities can strengthen students' understandings of how corporations respond to the various reporting requirements of this Act.


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