Washington: Picking up the gauntlet thrown down by the Senate, the US House of Representatives has voted to dramatically stiffen penalties for corporate fraud in a bid to restore investor confidence shaken by accounting scandals.

One day after the Upper Chamber passed a Bill calling for 10-year jail terms for executives caught cooking corporate books, the House voted 391-28 on July 16 to double the punishment and cleanse the business community of crooked executives.

"We must crack down on corporate crooks and re-establish the honour of the vast majority of the men and women in corporate America who are hard-working and honest," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, the chief sponsor of the Corporate Fraud Accountability Act.

Under the Legislation, mail or wire fraud committed in furtherance of white collar crimes will be punished by 20 years in jail, up from the five years envisaged by the Law currently in effect and double the punishment called for by the Paul Sarbanes Bill passed by the Senate on July 15.

The House measure also provides for prison terms of up to 25 year for people convicted of securities fraud as opposed to 10 years called for in the Senate bill.

It requires top corporate executives to certify that the financial statements of their companies fairly and accurately represent its condition.

Violations of this provision or filing false statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can result in corporate executives being imprisoned for up to 20 years and fined to up to five million dollars.