The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX or the Act) was intended to improve auditing of U.S. public
companies, consistent with the law’s official name—The Public Company Accounting Reform and
Investor Protection Act of 2002. The Act had two core goals: (1) to create a quasi-public institution
to oversee and regulate auditing (the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board [PCAOB]), and
(2) to enlist auditors more extensively in the enforcement of existing laws against theft and fraud by corporate officers, pursuant to regulations from and enforcement by PCAOB. Reinforcing this core
were new rules concerning the relationships between public companies and their auditors.