The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is a law passed by U.S. Well, as for this case, I guess it’s the one that got away (from the feds).Illumeo Customer Success ( Blogs at Illumeo) | Oct 6, 2020
Seuss, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960). She looked to the ordinary meaning of “tangible object” as “a discrete thing that possesses physical form.” She then went on (even more whimsically) to state:Ī fish is, of course, a discrete thing that possesses physical form. Justice Kagan wrote a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justices Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas. Now, the Supreme Court wasn’t united in this opinion. All are objects that are “tangible.” But who wouldn’t raise an eyebrow if a neighbor, when asked to identify something similar to a “record” or “document,” said “crocodile”? A fish does not spring to mind – nor does an antelope, a colonial farmhouse, a hydrofoil, or an oil derrick. He term “tangible object” should refer to something similar to records or documents. As Justice Alito (somewhat whimsically) noted in his concurring opinion, The term “tangible object” comes at the end of a list of terms that begins with “any record document.” Given the context and placement, a “tangible object” under SOX “is one used to record or preserve information” and does not include the entire universe of objects. It held that SOX was meant to address destroyed records and information, not red grouper! In the context of the statute, the destruction of evidence provision immediately follows corporate fraud and financial audit provisions. The Supreme Court found that the charges against the captain were fishy. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit affirmed the conviction, and the captain appealed to the U.S. He was found guilty and sentenced to 30 days. The captain was found guilty of destroying a “tangible object” – i.e. Under SOX, a person can be fined or imprisoned for up to 20 years if he “knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence” a federal investigation. (Perhaps you remember that SOX was enacted by Congress following the Enron scandal, which made waves in the financial industry by involving massive accounting fraud and the destruction of documents). After the agent left, however, the captain told his crew to pitch the fish overboard.Ĭasting a wide net, the government charged the captain with violating a provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) dealing with the destruction of evidence. The agent instructed the ship’s captain to keep the undersized fish separate from the rest of the catch until the ship returned to port. A federal agent found the undersized fish during an offshore inspection of a commercial fishing vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. It involves a fisherman who failed to preserve, as evidence, undersized fish that he had caught in violation of federal law.
United States, is outside our usual employment law zip code, but it’s such a wacky one, it lured us in.