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Non-Tech : The Enron Scandal - Unmoderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (2288)	7/1/2002 6:51:42 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3602

Democrats ask for Bush backing on corporate reforms By Kevin Drawbaugh WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - Raising the political stakes in the growing crisis in U.S. market confidence, Senate Democratic leaders on Monday asked President George W. Bush to endorse two bills to reform the accounting business and impose tougher criminal penalties for corporate wrongdoers. In a letter, Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle and Sen. Patrick Leahy appealed to Bush to support an accounting reform package sponsored by Sen. Paul Sarbanes, as well as a Leahy bill to be offered as an amendment to the Sarbanes measure. On the Sarbanes measure, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said, "We share the same goals in terms of increasing disclosure and cracking down on corporate wrongdoing." But she said the administration had "some concerns" about the bill. "We're working with Congress and hope we're able to work through these concerns," Buchan said. The senators said they welcomed reports Bush will soon unveil more proposals of his own for reform, following on a flood of corporate scandals at Enron Corp. (Other OTC:ENRNQ.PK - News), Global Crossing Ltd. (Other OTC:GBLXQ.PK - News), Xerox Corp. (NYSE:XRX - News) and elsewhere. "We look forward to working with you and members of your administration in a bipartisan manner to enact comprehensive legislation to restore confidence in the integrity of our capital markets," the senators said in the letter. With markets reeling from almost daily revelations of corporate chicanery, Democrats are moving to pin the blame on Republicans ahead of the November elections. Like the Democrats, the Republicans -- including Bush -- have proposed several measures to crack down on misbehavior by accountants, stock analysts and executives. But investor advocates have criticized Republican reforms as too friendly to corporations and harder-hitting Democratic measures have gained new life from recent revelations of accounting irregularities at WorldCom Inc. (NasdaqNM:WCOME - News). The wide-ranging bill from Maryland's Sarbanes has rocketed to the top of the Senate's agenda. A rival proposal sponsored by Ohio Republican Rep. Michael Oxley has passed the House of Representatives, while Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt has been pursuing separate initiatives. Like Sarbanes and Oxley, Pitt has proposed setting up a new oversight board for the badly wounded accounting industry, suffering from the downfall of former Enron auditor Andersen (ANDR.UL) and a growing list of other controversies. Buchan said the White House prefers Pitt's proposed accounting board, saying it can be implemented more quickly than Sarbanes' proposal. She said the Sarbanes bill should include a provision proposed by Bush to give the SEC administrative power to ban individuals from serving as corporate officers or directors. In their letter, South Dakota's Daschle and Vermont's Leahy said a bill proposed by Leahy would be offered next week as an amendment to the Sarbanes package. The Leahy bill, passed by the Judiciary Committee that he chairs, would: --Make it a felony to take part in any "scheme or artifice" to defraud shareholders in publicly traded companies, punishable by 10 years in prison. --Give corporate whistle-blowers, for the first time, new court protection from retaliation by their employers. --Add new "anti-shredding" laws to close loopholes in the obstruction of justice statutes and create a clear rule that corporate audit papers must be kept for at least five years. Bush plans a major speech on corporate responsibility on Wall Street on July 9, when he is expected to announce new measures to punish executives for misconduct.