*Corporate Responsibility
Accounting Practice Ethics
In the wake of corporate scandals involving unethical accounting practices from publicly traded companies, including Enron and Tyco, many consumers are justifiably distrustful of investing in businesses. The federal government responded with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 to mandate new financial reporting requirements to protect consumers, though with 90 demonstrators arrested during the "Occupy Wall Street" protest in 2011, it would seem to indicate distrust and anger still persists at time of publication, according to the "Financial Times" website. Accountants and financial advisers must avoid skirting ethical boundaries when making financial reports to the federal government and investors to help repair the wide rift between business investment and consumers.