Bank of America Article Review
Jessica Schneider
University of Phoenix
LAW/421
Bank of America Article Review
For the purpose of this paper I have chosen a recent article in our news where Bank of America was found in violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. I will provide a brief overview of the case, how the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has and will affect ethical decisions in today’s business environment, and finally what criminal penalties the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 provides.
According to an article provided by Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP which is a civil rights, whistleblower and employment law firm based in Washington, D.C, “The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires an employer to reinstate an employee it has fired for raising concerns about fraud.” The violation occurred in 2008 when an undisclosed manager of Countrywide, a subsidiary of Bank of America, uncovered “egregious fraud spread throughout the entire region” involving “pervasive wire, mail and bank fraud.” When this manager reported this information to the company he was immediately terminated. Bank of America was ordered to pay $930,000 to the employee in back wages, compensatory damages and attorney fees (Katz, Marshall & Banks, 2011).
I use this article as an example of how this type of decision by our courts will directly affect ethical decisions of corporate business in the United States. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 protects the whistleblower who reports fraud within a company. This in itself is enough to deter fraudulent behavior within corporations. If corporations and/or its executive are forced to keep in their minds that those that work with them or under them are protected by federal law when reporting their fraudulent behavior they will be less likely to act fraudulently.
In the case provided it is my opinion that Bank of America got off lightly compared to what they could have been fined under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of...