SOX Center

Retired Congressman Michael Oxley blames the PCAOB for starting “all the problems” with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Michael Oxley has been guaranteed immortality — and perhaps a degree of infamy — since his name was affixed to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the most comprehensive set of corporate rule changes since the 1930s.

Earlier this year, Oxley retired from Congress after serving 25 years. However, the 63-year-old Republican from Ohio is not ready to fade from the scene. In the last month, he has picked up two new jobs, as counsel for the Cleveland-based law firm Baker Hostetler and non-executive vice chairman of Nasdaq.

The act that bears his name missed unanimous passage through Congress by a mere three votes in the House, and initially received grudging lip service from a shaken corporate America. But a little noticed section, just 168 words long, soon changed the debate from whether Sarbox was essential to restoring confidence in the U.S. capital market to whether it was destroying it. Section 404, which required companies and their auditors to examine and report on the processes behind their financial reporting, quickly became the most expensive and hated provision of the act.

CFO.com:Oxley: I’m Not Happy with Sarbox