"The business world must clean up its act," he added. "People have got to have confidence as to whether or not the assets and liabilities are good numbers."
Bush also was quoted adding, "They've got to have confidence that the leadership has got the shareholder and employee in mind when they make decisions. So I am concerned about that. In this era where we expect there to be personal responsibility in America we expect there to be corporate responsibility as well."
Whether Bush's admonition will stem the tide of financial scandals remains to be seen. As CFO.com reported last week, a survey of senior corporate ethics officers reported they believe that the ugly corporate revelations are going to keep on coming.
Indeed, a majority of ethics officers expect that at least a half dozen more "major" business ethics scandals will emerge during the next 12 months, according to a survey conducted by The Conference Board. Some of the respondents expect more than 20 major cases. "Major" is defined as events causing more than $200 million in lost shareholder value.
(To see more results from the survey of corporate ethics officers, click here.)
Short Take
The SEC filed two civil injunctive actions in federal district court alleging separate revenue-recognition schemes perpetrated during 1998 by former officers and employees of Inso Corp. (now known as eBT International Inc.), a software company.
The commission's first complaint alleges that Inso's former general counsel, Bruce Hill, and a former vice president, Graham Marshall, engaged in fraud related to a phony $3 million sales transaction.
The complaint also charges Inso's former chief executive officer, Steven Paxhia, with being liable for certain violations as a controlling person of Inso.
The commission's second complaint alleges that another former Inso vice president, Richard Vatcher, engaged in fraud related to several false sales totaling approximately $3.6 million.
Paxhia and Vatcher have offered to settle with the commission.
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