An Assessment of the Impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on the Investigating Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, a plethora of corporate scandals occurred. Due to these corporate debacles, corporate executives have been placed under fire. In response to such unethical conduct with regard to internal practices and financial reporting, legislation has been passed in order to ensure that corporations conduct their business in an ethical manner. The purpose of this paper is to assess the connection between the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOx), to determine whether SOx has influenced the FCPA's investigative violation activities by examining the number of such investigations since the passage SOx. This paper also addresses specific cases of violations of anti-corruption laws and compares SOx and the FCPA on violation penalties.