When considering whether or not to invest money, many Americans have become hesitant. The shockwaves of the Enron, Tyco and WorldCom scandals are still being felt more than a decade later. As Americans watched Enron's investors and employees lose thousands of dollars, they grew timid about investing their life savings, not knowing if they too would receive nothing in return. With the knowledge of how a decline in financial marketing would greatly affect the U.S. economy, Congress eagerly began looking for ways to strengthen America's confidence in investing its hard-earned money. Government officials wanted greater accountability for a company's principal officers, a line of separation between the company and its audit firm, and provided penalties for noncompliance. The US Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 with the intention of restoring America's confidence in investing. The Fall of EnronEnron was a large corporation that marketed natural gas and electricity in North America. The former corporate giant, based in Houston, Texas, has been listed among Fortune's "most innovative" in the United States for several years and was ranked No. 7 on the Fortune 500 list in 2000 (Frontain). By 2000 the company had reported profits of $100 million and was believed to be worth billions on the stock market (Lehrer). As Enron company officials used secret investments and fraudulent calculations to increase the company's value, the company's stock prices rose dramatically. Company insiders who were aware of the inflated stock prices quickly sold their shares while the prices were high. However, in 2000, the company hit rock bottom. PBS.org reports that “When word got out that Enron… in the middle of the paper… guilty of this kind of bad behavior. Congress wanted companies to understand that anyone who wanted to operate in the way Enron chose would be heavily prosecuted for their actions in hopes of restoring faith in the criminal justice system. Works Cited A Guide to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. 2006. November 13, 2013 .Frontain, Michael. ENRON CORPORATION. and November 11, 2013.Lehrer, Jim. Not everything as usual. January 30, 2002. November 11, 2013 .Sarbanes-Oxley Essential Information. 2012. November 11, 2013. Sridharan, Uma V., Lori Dickes, and W. Royce Caines. The social impact of corporate failure: Enron. 2006. 2013 November 13 .