would you respond to this email post to John, do not repeat what he said: John, these financial reports are used in investment strategies and portfolios and can determine if a company will be a good fit for a projected growth in a portfolio because the information is forward looking. A real world example of what happens when a company does not put forth appropriate data is the company Enron. Enron was a multi billion dollar energy conglomerate that went bankrupt in the late 1990s. The company used off balance sheet information and other unsavory accounting practices to make it appear to the everyday investor that the company was experiencing growth. Unfortunately, the company was not experiencing growth, but rather they were hiding losses, fraudulently misrepresenting earnings to show profit, artificially inflating stock prices, and ultimately overvaluing the company (in both practice and in everything the company owned) (United States Department of Justice, 2004). By not having the appropriate information available for investors, the investors sunk money in what they thought was a healthy company based on the reporting. These actions ultimately led to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act which has a provision in it that CEO's and CFO's are personally responsible for financial information presented to the SEC and must sign the disclosure to the SEC making both executives of the company legally liable for the false statements both personally and professionally (Marden et al, n.d.). U