John "Snow" Job on Corporate reform.

[seasat]

It's no wonder Shrub Inc is keeping him on. Y'all need to read this interview. He sounds like he is supporting weakening enforcement of the minimum reforms in the Sarbanes-Oxley bill. IMHO, the bill didn't go far enough. They didn't add reforms like limiting consulting work for accounting firms that also audit corporations. They didn't curb PO box offshore headquarters for corporations looking to hide their income. Y'all remember this interview when the next corporate scandal comes up. Here's the interview. (LINK to interview exerpts)

From article:
Q: Are the regulators enforcing the law too aggressively?

A: The concern is with balance. The important thing is that, as fraud is dealt with, we recognize that all mistakes aren't fraud. It's important not to criminalize innocent mistakes.
...
The nature of business is that you aren't always going to be right.... We ought to make sure, to the extent we can, that the regulators, the litigators, the prosecutors, and so on are working in a way that isn't excessively duplicative or burdensome, creating untoward risks of multiple prosecutions and regulatory investigations.

[htuttle]

1. An 'innocent mistake' is one that has no consequence

A mistake requiring a company to substantially restate earnings can have serious consequences, ergo is not 'innocent'.

The auditors I've worked with consider mistakes that have serious consequences to be 'negligence' at best.