Not that I'm aware of, Rudi. Other posters might know differently.
Here's last month's PBS interview with SEC Harvey Pitt. Enjoy :o)!
pbs.org
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Selected highlights.
>>> JIM LEHRER: You want corporate executives to personally vouch for the accuracy of their financial statements. What problem is that designed to correct?
Holding executives accountable
HARVEY PITT: We want to avoid CEO's and other senior officers saying I was too busy. I was looking at something else. I didn't really understand. They have to be personally accountable and responsible for the disclosures that they make to investors.
JIM LEHRER: Has this been a wide spread problem, Mr. Chairman?
HARVEY PITT: I don't know how widespread it is but as you pointed out a second ago we are experiencing a diminution of investor confidence. And I believe that the first and critical way to get investor confidence back is to be able to believe what corporations tell them.
JIM LEHRER: What would you say to the average investor, lay investor who would say hey, way wait a minute have force corporate executives to tell the truth about their finances?
HARVEY PITT: I think most corporate executives do tell the truth. I think the problem is when we have even one incident like an Enron it's one too many. We can't afford to have investors and employees lose their life savings because of disclosures that needed to be made with withheld from them.
JIM LEHRER: You don't know how widespread it was. You just know because of Enron some people were doing it?
HARVEY PITT: We know this has been a problem for the last five to ten years, and that the system needs repair. And we intend to repair it.
JIM LEHRER: If a corporate executive violate this rule, what penalty does he or she face?
HARVEY PITT: Well, first of all it would constitute fraud. That will be both punishable by criminal penalties if the Justice Department brings suit and it will also be punishable by action by the SEC. And one of the things that we're doing in these actions is we're where CEO's don't fulfill their obligations, we're seeking to take away their salaries, their bonuses, their stock options and we're seeking to have the courts say that once they do something that is fraudulent, they can't be an officer, director of another public company.
JIM LEHRER: In other words, you would get rid of them, you would get them fired?
HARVEY PITT: One bite at the apple is probably too much. But two bites at the apple is not acceptable to us.<<< |
