The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that mandates certain practices in financial record keeping and reporting for corporations. The act,Pub. L. 107–204 (text)(PDF),116 Stat. 745,enacted July 30,2002,also known as the "Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act" and "Corporate and Auditing Accountability,Responsibility,and Transparency Act" and more commonly called Sarbanes–Oxley,SOX or Sarbox,contains eleven sections that place requirements on all U.S. public company boards of directors and management and public accounting firms. A number of provisions of the Act also apply to privately held companies,such as the willful destruction of evidence to impede a federal investigation.
Elizabeth Ann Warren is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts,serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a progressive,Warren has focused on consumer protection,equitable economic opportunity,and the social safety net while in the Senate. Warren was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries,ultimately finishing third after Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
William Hedgcock Webster is an American retired attorney and jurist who most recently served as chair of the Homeland Security Advisory Council from 2005 until 2020. He was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit before becoming director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1978 to 1987 and director of Central Intelligence (CIA) from 1987 to 1991. He is the only person to have held both positions.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is an independent bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury that was established by the National Currency Act of 1863 and serves to charter,regulate,and supervise all national banks and federal thrift institutions and the federally licensed branches and agencies of foreign banks in the United States. The acting comptroller of the currency is Michael J. Hsu,who took office on May 10,2021.
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is a nonprofit corporation created by the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 to oversee the audits of US-listed public companies. The PCAOB also oversees the audits of broker-dealers,including compliance reports filed pursuant to federal securities laws,to promote investor protection. All PCAOB rules and standards must be approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Gary S. Gensler is an American government official and former investment banker serving as the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Gensler previously worked for Goldman Sachs and has led the Biden–Harris transition's Federal Reserve,Banking,and Securities Regulators agency review team. Prior to his appointment,he was professor of Practice of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is a United States clearing house based in Chicago. It specializes in equity derivatives clearing,providing central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 16 exchanges. It was started by Wayne Luthringshausen and carried on by Michael Cahill. Its instruments include options,financial and commodity futures,security futures,and securities lending transactions.
Mary Jo White is an American attorney who served as the 31st chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 2013 to 2017. She was the first woman to be the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York,serving from 1993 to 2002. On January 24,2013,President Barack Obama nominated White to replace Elisse B. Walter as Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She was confirmed by the Senate on April 8,2013,and was sworn into office on April 10,2013. In 2014,she was listed as the 73rd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.
The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) is an independent,not-for-profit,section 501(c)(3) founded in 1977 and headquartered in Arlington,Virginia. NACD's membership includes more than 1,750 corporate boards as well as several thousand individual members,for a total of more than 24,000 members. Membership is open to individual board members and corporate boards of public,private,and nonprofit organizations from both the United States and overseas.
Edward Emmett Kaufman is a retired American politician and businessman who served as a United States senator from Delaware from 2009 to 2010. He chaired the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Oversight of the Troubled Asset Relief Program;he was the second and final person to hold the position,succeeding Elizabeth Warren. Kaufman is a member of the Democratic Party and a key ally of President Joe Biden.
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act created the Troubled Asset Relief Program to administer up to $700 billion. Several oversight mechanisms are established by the bill,including the Congressional Oversight Panel,the Special Inspector General for TARP (SIGTARP),the Financial Stability Oversight Board,and additional requirements for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board,561 U.S. 477 (2010),was a 5–4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that laws enabling inferior officers of the United States to be insulated from the Presidential removal authority with two levels of "for cause" removal violated Article Two of the United States Constitution.
Michael Piwowar is a former American federal government official who served as a Commissioner on the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2013 until 2018.
Walter Joseph "Jay" Clayton III is an American attorney who was the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from May 4,2017,until December 23,2020. He was nominated for the position by President Donald Trump. Clayton was selected on November 14,2024,by President elect Trump to be United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Christy Goldsmith Romero is an American lawyer and federal government official. She has served as a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) since 2022,having been nominated by President Joe Biden.
Kathleen M. Hamm is an American lawyer,federal regulator and fintech and cybersecurity expert,formerly a board member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board,and Counselor to the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Treasury for cyber policy and financial regulation. In April 2021,her alma mater,University at Buffalo School of Management,named her Accountant of the Year.
Rohit Chopra is an American businessman who is the third director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and previous member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Prior to this,Chopra served as assistant director of the CFPB and as the agency's first Student Loan Ombudsman,an office created by the Dodd–Frank Act.
The International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR) is a global member organization comprising independent audit regulators from 56 jurisdictions.
Bharat Ramamurti is an American attorney and political advisor who served as the deputy director of the National Economic Council for manufacturing,innovation and domestic competitiveness from 2021 to 2023. He previously served as a member of the COVID-19 Congressional Oversight Commission,a congressional oversight body tasked with overseeing the Department of the Treasury's and the Federal Reserve Board's management of stimulus and loan programs mandated by the CARES Act.
The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act is a 2020 law that requires companies publicly listed on stock exchanges in the United States to disclose to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission information on foreign jurisdictions that prevent the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) from conducting inspections. Under the law,such companies will be banned from trading and delisted from exchanges if the PCAOB is not able to audit specified reports for three consecutive years. The bill requires such companies to declare they are not owned or controlled by the Chinese government.
