Essays on Exchange Commission

Discuss the positives and negatives of corporate culture in the competitiveness of a firm. Relate how firms should deal with different corporate cultures in mergers and acquisitions. According to Wheelen and Hunger (2015), "corporate culture fulfills several important functions in an organization. It conveys a sense of identity for employees and helps generate employee commitment to something greater than them. It adds to the stability of the organization as a social system and serves as a frame of reference for employees to use to make sense of organizational activities as well as a guide for appropriate behavior." One of ...

Introduction

The SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) Act was enacted in 2002 by the Congress of U.S. As President Bush signed the Act, he characterized the law as the most far-reaching reformations of business practices in America business practices since the reign of Franklin Delano Roosevelt." The motive of the legislation was to protect investors and the public in general, from fraudulent practices and accounting errors in business. The bill also aimed to better the corporate disclosures' accuracy. The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the U.S. is in charge of the act, publishing rules and setting compliance deadlines on requirements. The Act ...

The U.S Securities and Exchange Commission refers to the United States’ agency that is tasked to enforce the securities laws, policies and guidelines, including the country’s stock and options exchange activities. It is the objective of this agency to “ protect investors, maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation” (U.S, 2017). One of the main roles of the SEC is to ensure that investors who turn into the securities exchange market are protected and activities that are geared towards capital and investment formation are sustained for economic growth.

The Creation of the PCAOB

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) was ...

Introduction

In the United States, some bodies have been formed with the aim of preventing consumer and investor exploitation. These bodies are aimed at providing financial protection to the citizens. Some special laws such as Usury laws have also been formed to protect the citizens from exploitation. These bodies include the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, the Security Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) (Mckay & Seale, 2000).

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and its purpose

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is an independent public corporation based in the United States. It was formed in the year 1933 ...

What is a 'Ponzi Scheme', how it Works and How does it Collapse?

A Ponzi scheme represents a fraudulent investment trick where the promoter pays return on investment to previous investors from the money invested by new investors instead of the money earned through profit or gain. Customers are promised to receive higher investment returns, compared to market averages, with no risk at all since they will be paid from the money provided by new clients. This investment scam requires an ample flow of clientele for powering the whole fraudulent system. A Ponzi scheme comes into existence when the promoter is able to cllect initial investment funds from a person. This scheme ...

An Overview of the Standard-Setting Industry And Its History

Introduction Accounting Standards have been in existence since the beginning of the recorded history. Some of these standards were set up by rulers or reigning kings. However, as the world developed, States started coming up with bodies aimed at controlling the quality and standards of products and services in the accounting sector. In the ancient world, the man used to come up with standards with a desire of harmonizing his activities with important changes in the environment. Some standards were also set in response to a rise in needs in the society. The standard setting body in America was ...

Question 3

The pros of the sole proprietorship involve the simplicity in the decision making process as well as low organizational and the operational expenses. The key drawback involves the unlimited liability to the owner of the firm where he can lose all his personal properties as well as capital in case the firm incurs any losses.

Question 4

A limited partnership tends to allow some of the partners so as to limit their liability. Under this type of the arrangement one or more of the partners are the designated general partners tend to have the unlimited liability for the debts of the ...

10 K Assignments 10 K Assignments: AMREP Corporation

Introduction: Description Of The Company

AMREP Corporation is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey in the United States. The company was founded in 1961 as AMREP (American Realty and Petroleum Corporation). As a publicly traded firm, AMREP complies with SEC’s (Security Exchange Commission) requirements by submitting the required material and financial information. The company is listed on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange), and it primarily engages in two major business segments, which include media services and real estate (Alexander, 2016). The company carries out its real estate business in Rio Rancho and some areas of ...

Often abbreviated as SOX, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was signed by the U.S. Congress into law in 2002 (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2013). The Act was designed to restore public confidence in corporate financial reporting and to initiate reforms in protecting investors from the possibilities of accounting fraud (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC], 2013). Congress also enacted SOX 2002 to improve the accuracy of corporate financial disclosures as well as shield the public from bookkeeping inaccuracies (SEC, 2013). According to Jahmani and Dowling (2008), the SOX 2002 was intended to not only advance the accuracy and reliability of ...

L Brands Inc.: The Strategy

Introduction

L Brands Inc. evolved from a simple department store in early 1900s into one of the largest retailers of women’s fashion and apparel products today. It has acquired Victoria’s Secret and PINK, and has made other significant acquisitions. L Brands has branches for Victoria’s Secret products in more than 1,100 stores in North America, Canada and United Kingdom (Nasdaq, 2016). The company markets its products through retail stores located in malls, through international franchise and websites (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 2016).

Strength L Brand sells through shopping malls ...

The Coca-Cola Company is a giant beverage company that owns over 500 nonalcoholic soft drink brands such as Diet Coke, Fanta, Coca-Cola and Sprite. The corporation strives to develop and accelerate its growth in order to create value for its shareowners and all the beverage distribution system consisting of independent bottling partners, wholesalers, retailers and distributors is designed to meet customers’ needs, lifestyles and desires. All profits are created to benefit world shareholders through dividend payments and key objectives to achieve this goal are expanding share of beverage sales, increasing volume of sold production and maximizing cash flows improving ...

Introduction

According to Trevino & Nelson (2011, p. 35), fraud does not happen as a coincidence. To be specific, fraud in organizations is usually premeditated and has to happen in the right conditions and members of the organization in authority often set these conditions. As such, identifying the root causes of fraud, which is called fraud deterrence, should be one of the priorities of corporate governance. Since fraud has been a common menace in the history of organizational management, various strategies, government regulations, and acts have been developed to prevent the occurrence of fraud (Giroux, 2013, p. 32). These procedures cover ...

Introduction

The primary purpose of using specific financial reporting frameworks is to ensure validity, uniformity, consistency and reliability of the financial reports. The IFRS and the US GAAP are two financial reporting frameworks that have some differences. The IFRS are often reliant on principles while the GAAP framework is founded on rules. The application of IFRS exceeds 110 states world over while the GAAP framework is mainly in the US and other few countries such as Japan. The US Securities Exchange Commission is, however, working on a way to adopt the IFRS like other nations. The two financial reporting frameworks ...

1. The Financial Crisis: Avoidable but Inevitable Theoretically, the financial crisis could have been avoided as investigation findings revealed . Under the circumstances however, the crisis was an inevitable consequence of everything that was going. The Federal inquiry concluded that the 2008 financial crisis could have been avoided. The crisis was the result of “widespread failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and heedless risk-taking by Wall Street”. It was the result of “greed, ineptitude or both” on the part of government and the private sector. Among the persons found responsible for the crisis included Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and, ...

(Tutor’s Name) (Assignment)

Executive Summary The disclosure of engagement partners and other participants in audits of public companies can add to the transparency and accountability of financial reporting significantly as it has been suggested by PCAOB and approved by SEC. With the implementation of this policy change, investors and other financial statement users can know the identity of the engagement partners and other participants in the audit. Therefore, investors can make well-informed investment decisions based on these disclosures. However, these disclosures have both direct and indirect costs that will be ultimately passed on to the company management and ...

Abstract

This paper is about the strategic management and strategic competitiveness of an organization. Apple Incorporation is an American-based multinational corporation, which is mainly involved in designing, development, and selling computer software, consumer electronics, online technological and user-based services. Apple Inc. is currently the largest information technology company across the globe and second largest phone manufacturer in the world. It relishes a superior brand loyalty and as per 2014, it was the most valuable brand with an approximate valuation of US $ 118.9 billion. The paper discusses how globalization drastically influences the business style, capabilities, proficiencies, expertise, and overall business performance ...

Investor Communication Plan

Investor Communication Plan

Background

Western States Electric Components Group, a subsidiary of Consolidated Electrical Company, mistakenly misrepresented its sales income for the past four years. Western has been selling about 55% of its connolator generators to various ConsoE’s divisions at lower internal retail prices. The different divisions resold these connolators acquired from Western to outside companies. Unfortunately, the financial department has been recording these activities as two separate earnings, hence double booking. Upon the revision of the accounts for the four years, profits for the following financial year will come out as big loses hence affecting the prices and ...

Question 1(a)

According to section 2 (a) (1) of the Securities Act 1933, a security includes a note, stock, investment contract, certificate of interest or participation in any profit- sharing agreement, collateral trust certificate, any interest or instrument commonly known as "security", or any certificate of interest in participation in, and so on. Section 5 of the Securities Act provides for the mandatory registration of a "security" and a registration statement in effect, failure to which, it would be unlawful for any person or individual to offer the security for sale to the public. The case of Securities Exchange Commission v ...

Abstract

The paper will explore the business environment and the fraud scandals that prompted the need for more comprehensive and stringent regulations on financial disclosure by all public business entities operating on U.S. soil. The primary financial issues that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was meant to address will be addressed, with a specific focus on how to restore investor confidence by imposing more strict rules on companies in terms of recording investments, cash flows and periodic profit/loss statements . Through an analysis of the basic provisions of the Act with regards to assigning personal responsibilities on officers of the company, as well ...

The overall aim of every investor is to make a profit. There are various investment tools that are designed to meet the specific needs of the investor. Thus, depending on the investment goals and objectives, an investor can opt for an investment option that best suit his needs. There are both long-term investment and as well short term investment tools. The long-term investments are generally considered to be investments that an investor wishes to hold for a period of more than one year. On the other hand, short term investments refer to the investments that are likely to expire ...

Performance measurement is an essential aspect that defines whether an enterprise is successful or no. Through an analysis of the Kohl’s Corporation 10-K, various performance measurement approaches are used. Like in conventional business practice, the performance measures are used to inform the direction that a firm should take (Kellen & Wolf, 2003). As pointed out in the text, there are many perspectives in approaching performance measures. The measures used by Kohl’s Corporation can be categorized into four groups.

Financial measures

Performance measures that take the financial perspective have the goal of looking into whether a company is profitable, and whether ...

Introduction

A family business is a profit-making entity that entails the significant roles of decision making, ownership, and leadership of the business being undertaken by several generations of a family. For a firm to be considered as a family business, the multigenerational element, and the unique family is fundamental (Carlock, Kets de Vries, and Florent-Treacy 12). Family businesses vary from size to industry; there are corner shops with a history of family ownership and leadership and similarly publicly listed multinationals, which share a similar foundation (Carlock, Kets de Vries, and Forest-Treacy 17). Internationally, there are numerous examples of family-owned businesses; ...

Target Corporation: Internal and External Environments

Introduction Target Corporation is one of the leading retail companies in the United States. With a nationwide footprint that includes 1,790 stores, the company has been recognized as one of the top ten global retail brands (MarketLine, 2016). Although the company recognized an increase in sales for the 2015 fiscal year, Target did experience a decline in operating and net profits (MarketLine, 2016). In the past, Target has been able to differentiate itself by offering product lines that emphasize value. Target’s product lines have offered its consumers products that are slightly upscale for a discount chain, but ...

Cases of fraud usually take place in both huge firms as well as small firms, and in this case, we will focus on Mamtek, which was a small firm. There are various reasons that usually led to cases of fraud in the various firms. Most of the fraud cases usually involve manipulating the various stakeholders for personal gain. Such decisions to commit fraud are usually for personal gains or to achieve performance within short durations rather than following the right procedures which would bring positive results in the long run. Mamtek was a Hong Kong based manufacturing firm that ...

Business

External and Internal Environments: The Case of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. I. Company Profile and Operations Overview Opening its doors on the 13th of July 1937, the history of the company began with its founder Vernon Rudolph during the time of the Great Depression. Working in his uncle Ishmael Anderson, they bought the rights to a yeast-raised doughnut recipe together with a bakery from French Chef Joe LeBeau who carried the recipe with him from New Orleans. Rudolph took the recipe when he left the family business and started his own bakery business in the historic Old Salem, North ...

Value-at-Risk

Introduction Risk assessment is essential in portfolio management. A portfolio manager has the duty of maximising returns of the portfolio of the assets for each level of risk. Alternatively, a portfolio manager should minimise the risk of the portfolio at any level of return of the portfolio. Several models are used in assessing the risk involved in a portfolio of investments. Value-at-risk is widely applied in determining portfolio risk. We explore the concept of value-at-risk and its usage in portfolio management.

It is a model that measures how much the value of a portfolio could fall over a specified ...

Q1. Accounting standards play a significant role in the financial statements preparation process. The main international standard-setting organization is the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) headquartered in London. It issues International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) which are used in more than 115 countries and is gaining acceptance in other states as well. These standards are also used on most foreign exchanges. Moreover, the IASB also issues framework for financial reporting and international financial reporting interpretations. Besides, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) also plays a significant role in the international standard-setting process. It doesn’t develop accounting standards, ...

Introduction

Studying accounting has been one of my interests since I was a child. Being in accounting classes was really enjoyable from the start. However, although studying the concept in class was interesting, I found it more thrilling to put to work some of the skills that I had learned. I was privileged to get an internship at PWC, one of the big four auditing firm, which I started on January 4th the year 2016. Through this internship, I was exposed to real-life accounting and auditing experiences which I had spent the last several years preparing. As such, this report ...

CONTENTS I. Introduction 2 II. Allen Stanford Ponzi Scheme 3 III. The victims 4 IV. Arraignments 5 V. Forfeitures by the Government 5 VI. Conclusions 5

Works Cited 7

Introduction The concept of white-collar crime refers to financial and nonviolent criminally punishable action, which is perpetrated by the business or by the government officials (Friedrichs, 1992, p. 21). This term was coined by one of the most renowned modern sociologists Edwin Sutherland, who used this term to describe a crime, which is committed by ‘a public employee or a high-ranked business man by using his occupation’ (Shapiro, 1990, p. 348). Nowadays, the ...

Over the last two decades, corporate social responsibility has gained deep interest from accountants and auditors. It happens because substantial amounts of financial resources are invested in corporate social responsibility; yet there are not explicit accounting policies and standards to report on corporate social responsibility financials and activities (The Institute of Internal Auditors, 2016). Owing to this, there has been varied views and discourses on the conduct of corporate social reporting with many commentators focusing majorly on the triple bottom line reporting as a prelude to corporate social reporting. The current paper presents a detailed review of the ongoing ...

Abstract

Before making any decision on the choice of an investment plan, it is very important that the individual carries out an intensive evaluation on the available investment options. Real estate is a very significant part of investment portfolio due to its numerous advantages and the les associated risks as compared to other forms of investments. As a Personal Retirement Plan, I opt for real estate. In this work, I have thoroughly investigated the theories and literature on real estate as an investment plan, and examined the both the benefits and the risks associated with such kind of an investment. There are ...

Before its collapse in December 2001, Enron was ranked by Fortune as the 7th largest company in the United States and was viewed as one of the most innovative companies in the world. It initially started as a gas and utility company and grew quickly through innovative strategies to a leading trader in energy supply, steel, paper pulp and fiber optic bandwidth.

BACKGROUND

Enron’s rapid expansion required huge investment in assets which was mainly financed through debt. This debt was hidden by means of establishing special partnerships entities to effectively remove any negative effects to the company which may be evident ...