In the news this week.

Compliance Week focuses on the woes of internal auditors when SOX related work raises its ugly head outside of their normal work. Companies should have a communication process to handle such an occurrence. See Compliance Week (needs registration.)

Executives who were recipients of corporate loans may be a rarity now. Especially since the cases of Bernie Ebbers and Dennis Kozlowski. However a few companies forgave millions of dollars in loans to executives in recent years. Corporate reform law Sarbanes-Oxley made new loans by a company to its executives illegal. But loans made before the law went into effect July 30, 2002, were allowed to stand. TheC7 existing loan agreements cannot be modified in a "material" C1way, even if the modification benefits the company. See more in Old corporate loans remain despite Sarbanes-Oxley in Business Week

Japanese corporate governance legislation in the wake of the Livedoor and Seibu Railway Co. scandals for auditing companies is looked at in Scandal heightens pressure for tough corporate control. A Financial Services Agency panel, the Business Accounting Council has proposed legislation on internal controls over financial reporting. In effect a Japanese Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The Enron trial grinds on. Television crews and other aspects of the media circus are decreasing. IHT finds that "However this chapter in the sordid Enron melodrama plays out, it recalls the wisdom of the old trial lawyer: that the amount of truth to be found in any lawsuit is a constant, and the only variable is the number of witnesses." Balance sheet: The limits of outrage

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