Here are the directions for the essay:
During the last few years there have been a number of public corporations that have gone bankrupt at the expense their investors. Most would say an investor should expect to lose their money since there is a certain element of risk whenever you invest in the stock market. But in these high profile cases many of the investors were in fact employees of the firm who were investing in the firm through their 401K funds retirement programs.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has been passed to help cut down on some of the risk to investors whether they are company employees or pure and applied investors.
Define the Sarbanes-Oxley Act with special emphasis on the purpose of this legislation, how the act has been implemented, documented success of the act to this point. Evaluate if more regulations or laws are needed on the books.
Argue whether rank and file employees who are simply building up their savings should be considered and protected as another class of investor. As a specific example of this, one Enron Lineman had a 401K pension fund of $341,000 and in three days his pension fund was worth $1,200. Is it ethical to work all your life to arrive at this point or are these simply risks each investor takes. Do we have an ethical right to protect these investors?
Finally, does putting white collar criminals away for long periods of time seem like the best answer? Should they be working to repay their victims?