Would the new SOX requirements have prevented the manipulation per se why or why not?

The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 includes helpful broad provisions such as establishing a Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), maintaining auditor independence, improving corporate responsibility and enhancing financial disclosure. In addition, it spawned several more specific requirements that might have prevented this manipulation. For example, SOX requires a complete evaluation, CEO and CFO certification, and audit of the company's internal controls and financial reporting system (Section 404) , creation of entity level controls such as whistleblower programs, and accountability of senior manager and directors for financial information (Section 302 certification), while emphasizing directors' and auditors' independence. On the other hand, they might not have prevented this manipulation because of the risk of management override in a weak control environment, and the fact that internal controls cannot prevent all frauds  they can only minimize the possibility of fraud occurring.