As dutiful capital market servants, it is crucial that you know all the important dates in the history of your craft. The day Andersen died. The first day the computerized CPA exam was offered. The moment you knew that your joke of a college band was going nowhere and that a degree in accounting was going to prevent you from moving back in with your parents.
There are several other important dates that you should know about it as it relates to your industry. For example, on December 2, 20112001, Enron filed for bankruptcy (something you should all be extremely grateful for). It is a key date in one of the most spectacular corporate scandals ever and you should all commit it to memory.
But as time goes on, more corporate scandals will come to light, captivating America with huge dollar amounts, arrogant executives, and hapless auditors who had a front-row seat to it all. It's a challenge to keep track of all these events when there are so many of them but luckily, the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics has you covered. With their Corporate Scandal Calendar, you'll be able to recall fond memories of scandals past and document new ones as they hit the front pages:
Browsers of the recently distributed 2013 edition will see that an [Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics] compliance and ethics academy in Shanghai is scheduled for the week of July 7, which spans four dates that may live in corporate-scandal infamy: the 2004 indictment of former Enron Chairmen Kenneth Lay on fraud charges, the 2004 fraud conviction of Adelphia Communications founder John Rigas, the 2011 closure of News Corp.’s News of the World tabloid in the wake of a phone-hacking scandal, and the 2005 sentencing of former Worldcom leader Bernard Ebbers to 25 years in prison for accounting fraud.
If you like, you can even include your own personal scandals whether it's related to wildly inappropriate expense report submissions or your engagement's teams antics made into the pages of Going Concern. It's important to have a written history for the grandkids so they can learn from the mistakes of the past.
Forget the Swimsuit Edition, Check Out the Corporate Scandal Calendar [WSJ]
