Final answer:
The federal statute enacted to improve corporate governance after several accounting scandals is the Sarbanes-Oxley (option D) Act of 2002, which aimed to protect investors and restore confidence in financial information provided by public corporations.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is a federal statute enacted by Congress to improve corporate governance. The correct answer to the fill-in-the-blank question is D) Sarbanes-Oxley.
This act came as a response to a series of major accounting scandals that shook the confidence of investors. Companies such as Enron, Tyco International, and WorldCom were involved in practices that misled shareholders and the public about their financial health. The enforcement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act aimed to restore trust in financial information released by public corporations, by setting new standards for corporate accountability and by implementing stringent regulatory measures to prevent and eliminate accounting fraud.