Zangani Begins Campaign to Petition Congress to Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act
Released on = January 24, 2007, 7:52 am
Press Release Author = Zangani Investor Community
Industry = Financial
Press Release Summary = We have begun a movement to investigate the possibility of changing, or repealing entirely, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Please see link below for open letter and a signed petition that is growing by the minute.
The Open Letter: http://www.zangani.com/sox
The \"Digg\" submission http://www.digg.com/business_finance/Sarbanes_Oxley_Could_Be_A_Thing_of_the_Past_Open_Letter_to_Congress
Press Release Body = AN OPEN LETTER TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS Dear Distinguished Public Servants:
Sarbanes-OxleyThe Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) act was passed in 2002 to transform the regulation of corporate accounting and disclosures. As a small business development and investor relations company, operating in the domestic financial markets, we are writing to urge you to take a closer look at the negative impact the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has wrought. Our hopes are that after Congress conducts a thorough investigation you will repeal this \"well-intentioned\" however, ill-conceived legislation.
We have seen first hand, the harm Sarbanes-Oxley has inflicted on colleagues and competitors alike. The section that requires companies to perform internal audits has been extremely costly to them, and has caused many companies to simply avoid going public on the market. The reports we\'ve reviewed since this act has been in effect indicates that worldwide public offerings listed on our exchanges has dropped to 5% down from 50% in 2000. This is hardly surprising with the burdens placed on small companies through this act.
We have witnessed first hand senior mangers and decision makers, become so risk-aversive, because of stringent financial regulations and increased penalties for accounting errors that they shy away from perfectly legitimate activities. These same people are asked to personally affirm audits and accounting and if anything is amiss, they risk jail time. The driving force of the act was to resolve the conflict of auditing firms being paid by the companies they audit, and this has failed miserably. It has only created yet another expensive and perhaps unconstitutional agency to regulate the audit firms\' activities.
Earlier this month, venture capitalist and Netscape founder Jim Clark announced his departure from the board of directors at photo-printing site Shutterfly, where he served as chairman. In his resignation letter, he cited \"the constraints imposed by Sarbanes-Oxley on (his) having any significant role on the board\" as one of the primary reasons for departure.
In December 2006 Michael Bloomberg, New York\'s mayor, and Charles Schumer, a U.S. senator, expressed their concern in an article titled: \"To save New York, learn from London.\" which, amongst other things, pressed for a reduction in the regulatory burden imposed by Sarbanes-Oxley. This was reinforced on January 22nd, 2007 when U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Governor Elliot Spitzer and NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg released a groundbreaking report revealing that New York could lose its status as a global financial market without a major shift in public policy. Their top recommendation to sustain the nation\'s and New York\'s global financial services leadership was to \"provide clearer guidance for implementing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act\" which they attribute as being the #1 issue at hand.
Is there any upside to Sarbanes-Oxley? If it did anything for you it would be O.K., but we\'ve seen absolutely nothing except at least a doubling of the legal and audit bills. It\'s very bad for small companies. The current notion of exempting smaller companies from Sarbanes-Oxley is stupid. Every small company wants to be a big company. It\'s a continuum [so they\'ll have to comply anyway]. It needs to just be flushed down the drain.
So, in essence, we feel that Congress, unknowingly, has rewarded the very bureaucracies that failed to keep tabs on the Enrons of the world. These same companies could have been prosecuted and tried with laws that were already in existence before 2002. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a superfluous and harmful constraint on free enterprise and we ask that it be repealed.
Sincerely,
Web Site = http://www.zangani.com
Contact Details = Zangani Investor Community 9 Main Street Flemington, NJ 08822 908-788-9660 x625 office@zangani.com