Sarbanes Oxley Act and Legal Risk for Companies

Sarbanes Oxley is not only the original Act, but also all the interpretations in the new (after Enron and World Com) legal and political context. There is no room to "forget" to include legal proceedings after Sarbanes Oxley. The Act imposes a number of new disclosure requirements designed to enhance visibility.

- Disclosure of financial information prepared in accordance with (or reconciled to) generally accepted accounting principles... that reflect all material correcting adjustments that have been identified by a registered public accounting firm in accordance with GAAP and applicable securities laws.

- Disclosure of all material off-balance sheet transactions, arrangements, contingent obligations and other relationships with unconsolidated entities.

- Disclosure of codes of ethics for senior financial officers and, if a code of ethics has not been adopted, the reasons why the issuer has not done so.

- Real-Time Disclosure (