Ross Roundtable.Audit Committeee Reforms....

The Vincent C. Ross Institute of Accounting Research th40 West 4 Street, Rm. 300, New York, NY 10012 Baruch Lev, Director e-mail: blev@stern.nyu.edu Seymour Jones, Associate Director e-mail: sjones@stern.nyu.edu ROSS ROUNDTABLE on Audit Committee Reforms: Requirements of the Sarbanes Oxley Act and Consideration of Financial Statement Insurance Date & Time: Monday, January 27, 2003 from 4:00pm to 6:00pm Location: New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business th 44 West 4 Street Kaufman Management Center thCantor Boardroom, 11 floor (11-75) New York, NY 10012 Contact: 212-998-4143 or 212-998-4144 Roundtable Coordinator: Joshua Ronen, Professor, Department of Accounting, Taxation and Business Law Roundtable Theme Last fall, Enron’s collapse stunned the nation. A shocking series of revelations of accounting irregularities by certain major corporations followed. What happened? Several culprits have been suggested: investors’ irrational exuberance, infectious greed, and foolishness; the bursting of the bubble; the impoverished morality of certain CEOs; the tendency to cook the books; the failure of the gatekeepers; and the rules oriented financial reporting system, which have permitted auditors to acquiesce in accounting gimmicks and earnings management. Unfortunately, these alleged causes cannot be remedied with equal effectiveness. Prosecution and punishment may not adequately deter ...