| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: | CONTACT: Jesse Jacobs |
| Wednesday, February 27, 2002 | 202-224-4524 |
BANKING COMMITTEE TO HOLD HEARING
ON ACCOUNTING IRREGULARITIES
IN WAKE OF FAILURE OF ENRON CORP.
Senator Paul S. Sarbanes, the Chairman of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, has announced that the full Committee will hold an oversight hearing on accounting irregularities in the wake of the collapse of Enron Corp. and other high-profile business failures in recent years.
Many of these business failures have involved significant accounting irregularities and the hearing will examine the issues raised by those failures for financial reporting by public companies, accounting standards, and oversight of the accounting profession. Witnesses will include those who have been involved in previous Commissions that have studied the accounting profession, as well as other experts.
The hearing will be held:
10:00 A.M.
538 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
Appearing before the Committee will be:
- Mr. Shaun O'Malley
Chair of the 2000 Public Oversight Board Panel on Audit Effectiveness (the O'Malley Commission);
and former Chair, Price Waterhouse LLP; - Mr. Lee Seidler
Deputy Chairman of the 1978 AICPA Commission on Auditor's Responsibilities (the Cohen Commission);
and Managing Director Emeritus, Bear Stearns & Company; - Mr. Arthur R. Wyatt
Past President, American Accounting Association;
former partner, Arthur Andersen & Company; Professor of Accountancy Emeritus, University of Illinois; - Professor Abraham Briloff
Emanual Saxe Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Baruch College, New York; and - Mr. Bevis Longstreth
Member of the O'Malley Commission; member of the Securities and Exchange Commission,
1981-84; and retired partner, Debevoise & Plimpton
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