When Sarbanes-Oxley passed, a major criticism of the legislation by publicly traded companies was that its implementation would be extremely expensive.This was indeed the case in the early stages of implementation, but now there are many frameworks and resources available (such as COSO) to assist in properly complying with the law.

Is this cost justified if it leads to better internal controls?Will the criminal liability of company officers effectively prevent management override of internal controls resulting in fraud?Is there quantitative proof that SOX has been effective in preventing fraud?