Tracing the aftermath of corporate frauds and governance renaissance: From collapse to compliance

Abstract

Corporate Governance plays a significant role in preventing major corporate forgeries and financial scandals. The aim of this study is to reveal and evaluate major corporate scams worldwide that have arisen due to weak corporate governance and to assess the effect of various measures that have been initiated to prevent scams in future. The analysis of noteworthy corporate frauds including Enron, Satyam, Wirecard, IL&FS, WorldCom, and others reveal that poor regulatory checks, lack of board transparency, audit manipulation are responsible for CG failures, To counter weak corporate governance, various acts, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (USA), SEBI Clause 49 and Companies Act amendments (India), UK Corporate Governance Code and OECD Principles of Corporate Governance were enacted. These were introduced to improve accountability and transparency of board, strengthen the independence of auditors and enhance financial disclosures, The result of the study reveals that despite difficulty in enforcement, these reforms have significantly strengthened corporate governance structure.