US President George W Bush called for stiff new penalties for corporate criminals and a crackdown on boardroom scandals today.
He promised in a speech on Wall Street that his administration would "end the days of cooking the books, shading the truth and breaking the law."
Confronting a wave of corporate wrongdoing that has undermined investor confidence and threatened political damage to the White House, Mr Bush said: "We will use the full weight of the law to expose and root out corruption."
The president called on the US Sentencing Commission to recommend longer prison terms for corporate executives guilty of fraud and announced a new task force for the pursuit and prosecution of corporate criminal activity.
The task force would be headed by Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson and include investigators from the Department of Justice and other agencies.
Mr Bush likened it to a "financial crimes SWAT team, overseeing the investigation of corporate abusers and bringing them to account."
AP