| Scott Park April 19, 2003 RIL 231 Extra Credit The article about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act seems to jump around to different ideas rather quickly. This made the reading a bit difficult. It starts off by stating there has been a revision in the protection given to any whistleblower that may bring forth information about a company doing any unlawful acts. The company may not retaliate on the employee for doing such an act. The article covered how many supervisors would have to be retrained as to not discriminate against those employees that have notified officials to any wrongdoing. The U.S. Department of Labor has authority to make decisions concerning reports by employees about their company�s actions. A preliminary judgment will be made, and then each side must be notified of the information used to make this judgment in accordance with the Fifth Amendment. The article goes on to cover the obligations that an in-house attorney has concerning this Act. First off, the attorney must report any violations up the ladder to the person in charge of the offense. The report must reach the highest level of the company. The Act also gives the attorneys and counsels the same protections that the whistleblowers are given. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act puts restrictions on some parts of the business transactions. When a company is brought up on charges, they cannot extend loans or other coverage to officers that deal with the equity of the company. With this new Act, the punishments for offenders were increased significantly monetarily. |