Credibility of post-Enron Inquisition under threat?
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It seems that support is dwindling for the war against corporate fraud being waged by certain US government agencies.
It seems that support is dwindling for the war against corporate fraud being waged by certain US government agencies. In a recent interview with Information Age, Ray Paquet, a vice president at IT market analyst company Gartner, voiced the opinion that federal investigators were over-zealous in targeting software companies.
Discussing the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice's (DoJ) broadened investigations into software vendor Computer Associates (CA), Paquet said: "The Enron debacle has given them [the SEC and DoJ] a licence to go on a witch-hunt."
Certainly, the fact that CA stocks on the New York Stock Exchange hardly registered the news of the investigations gives credence to the claim that investors are beginning to view these investigations more as an over-reaction by the US government. Then again, maybe CA's reputation is so soiled that shareholders are no longer interested in new scandals. A fuller analysis of the investigations into Computer Associates can be found in this month's Company analysis section.
