New US law used to prosecute top executive

Scrushy’s trial is the first major prosecution of a CE under a new law which requires top executives to vouch for the accuracy of their books. Under the law, introduced in the wake of Enron and WorldCom, key executives at more than 12 000 companies are required personally to vouch for the numbers they provide regulators and investors in securities filings. If those numbers are phoney, they face a maximum of 20 years in prison. But that law is only now beginning to be tested in court, reports The Washington Post. Scrushy contends that he was duped by subordinates who were responsible for inflating profits. Full report in The Washington Post