Sarbanes Oxley was one of the most important changes to the legal structure of financial accounting in the last century. For your assignment, write an essay on the legislation that answers all of the following questions:

1) What were the corporate scandals that led to its creation?

2) What were the important characteristics of the reform?

3) What steps did the reform take to improve accounting accuracy?

4) What steps did the reform take to improve accountability?

5) What is YOUR OPINION as to why accuracy and accountability are important to society? Think about the various stakeholders to a company, not just those using the financial statements to make investment decisions. Can you think of people that may be affected by poor accounting control that might have nothing to do with the business itself?