Large-scale accounting fraud cases, such as Enron and WorldCom, attracted an abundance of press in the mainstream media. This prompted financial regulators and governments to take action. In preventing accounting scandals from occurring in the future, much of the onus rests on audit committees and boards of directors, who must emphasize professional ethics, independence, and transparent reporting. The NYSE and NASDAQ have taken action to regulate companies’ financial reporting, requiring at least three independent members to sit on all audit committees. These new principles respond to the SEC’s call for improving the effectiveness of firms’ audit committees in preventing accounting manipulation.