Now that the Sarbanes Act has been passed by both Houses of Congress and signed by Bush it might have some interesting consequences before too long.
Among other things, it may mean that the UK directors of large businesses with subsidiaries in the US may be hauled across the Atlantic to face criminal charges. Hands are being raised in horror over here by the accounting profession (self-regulating and entirely honourable, of course!) and some senior directors because we, over here, could never be as naughty as the Americans. Nonsense, of course, and there have been two recent high-profile cases to show this. In the Sotheby-Christie's commission-conspiracy affair, the American director of one of the companies has now been given a prison sentence. The English Director (a Sir Somebody) is too frightened to go to America because he'll be arrested. Then again, Lord Wakeham, a past member of Enron's auditing committee (and an accountant by profession) has already faced Congressional Committees over his responsibilities in Enron's collapse. He may well face prison or at least a hefty fine in the coming months. (Lord Wakeham, a past member of Thatcher's Cabinet, is such a high profile person in the English establishment -- President of the Press Commisssion among other many other things -- that he couldn't simply refuse to go to America to face charges like the dishonourable Sir Somebody above.) Me? I'm all in favour. Not that I want to advance America's hegemony even further, but we badly need international rules of business and accounting practice. (And, I might add, since governments began printing money arbitrarily with no basis on gold or other redeemable value, then the quicker we move onto an international currency the better. It doesn't really matter whether it's the US dollar or the Chinese Renminbi so long as it can rid us of violent exchange rate fluctuations which are not only a source of profit for speculators but also remove the objective checks and balances that a country needs in order to keep its accounts in order.) Keith Hudson ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- Keith Hudson,6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel:01225 312622/444881; Fax:01225 447727; E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
