America clears corporate fraud bill.

House and Senate negotiators agreed on a broad overhaul of corporate fraud, accounting and securities laws aimed at curbing the rampant abuses that have shaken the Wall Street. Final approval in Congress is expected soon. and the US president bush has said he will sign the bill into law.

The bill creates a regulatory board to oversee the accounting industry and punish corrupt auditors, establishes new grounds for prosecuting corporate wrongdoing and gives broad new protections to corporate whistle-blowers. Anyone who uses a "scheme or artifice" to defraud investors would face long term prison terms.

- Hindustan times - July 26, 2002