Editing Sarbanes–Oxley Act (section)

==Clawbacks of executive compensation for misconduct==
One of the highlights of the law was a provision that allowed the SEC to force a company's CEO or CFO to [[disgorgement (law)|disgorge]] any executive compensation (such as bonus pay or proceeds from stock sales) earned within a year of misconduct that results in an earnings restatement. However, according to [[Gretchen Morgenson]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'', such [[clawback]]s have actually been rare, due in part to the requirement that the misconduct must be either deliberate or reckless. The SEC did not attempt to claw back any executive compensation until 2007, and as of December 2013 had only brought 31 cases, 13 of which were begun after 2010. However, according to Dan Whalen of the accounting research firm Audit Analytics, the threat of clawbacks, and the time-consuming litigation associated with them, has forced companies to tighten their financial reporting standards.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/business/clawbacks-theyre-still-a-rare-breed.html|title=Clawbacks? They're Still a Rare Breed|last=Morgenson|first=Gretchen|author-link=Gretchen Morgenson|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=2013-12-29}}</ref>