By going public overseas, Econergy avoided a slew of federal regulations, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which came in the wake of accounting scandals at Enron, WorldCom and others.
The law, commonly referred to as SOX, is named after its two congressional sponsors. It set new accountability standards for public company boards and auditors, established a public accounting oversight board under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and specified civil and criminal penalties for noncompliance.
“It’s overbearing,” said Stoner of SOX. “The action (for small companies) is in London.”