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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: reaper who wrote (182901)	7/24/2002 10:14:37 AM
From: yard_man	Respond to of 436258

gimmeee a break ...

To: reaper who wrote (182901)	7/24/2002 11:49:20 AM
From: marginnayan	Respond to of 436258

Lawmakers Agree on Corporate Reform Bill biz.yahoo.com --------- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers reached final agreement on a massive corporate reform measure on Wednesday, preserving much of a Senate bill requiring stricter oversight of auditors but adopting stiffer criminal penalties passed by the House. Republicans and Democrats resolved differences between the competing bills within days, under pressure from a stream of corporate scandals that has eroded investor conference and threatens to send angry voters to November elections. "The legislation that we crafted in the conference I think goes a long way in solving some of the egregious problems that have arisen as a result of corporate misconduct and accounting scandals," said Rep. Mike Oxley, the Ohio Republican chairing the House and Senate negotiators. "The White House has informed me this morning that they support the conference agreement, and we are ready to go forward," Oxley told reporters. President Bush has said he wants a bill by the time Congress goes home for its August recess. The House hopes to start its break this weekend; the Senate has another week. Oxley said he hoped to have the bill on the house floor as early as tomorrow. Negotiators began their work last Friday. There was no immediate comment from Sen. Paul Sarbanes, the Maryland Democrat who crafted much of the Senate bill. Oxley said the House and Senate had resolved their disagreement over the independence of a new accounting oversight board. The board would be independent but ultimately overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC and the accounting oversight board would coordinate their investigations, Oxley said. Senate language bolstering the independence of accountants, by restricting the consulting services they can perform for audit clients, was preserved. The House bill would have left it to the SEC to decide on further curbs. But the House contributed much tougher penalties for wrongdoing in the final bill. Maximum jail time for wire and mail fraud, statutes often used to prosecute white-collar crimes, would go up to 20 years. That's up from five years currently and 10 years in the Senate bill. A new crime of securities fraud would carry a 25-year maximum sentence. ------- Looks like Lawmakers even increased the jail time for crooked CEOs, a punishment almost equivalent to second degree murder. I hope CEOs and CFOs start getting scarred for their A/C gimmicks.