t is hard to imagine a more stellar resume. As a result of Lay‟s leadership, Fortune magazine named Enron the most innovative company in America six times from 1996 to 2001. Then, it all fell apart.
Enron passed an audit from Arthur Andersen for FY 2000. Closing FY 2001, on October 16, 2001, Enron took a “restatement” that removed $1.2 billion in assets on the balance sheet, though it showed no change to its income statement.As its auditor, Arthur Andersen‟s consultants onsite at Enron re-examined the accounting and found that billions of dollars of debts were missing from the balance sheet. “Andersen immediately (1) notified the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Justice Department, (2) withdrew its audit opinions, and (3) required Enron to restate its financial statements for the years 1997-2001. The restatements caused Enron to suffer a cash crunch and one month later on December 2, 2001, Enron declared bankruptcy (Morrison 2005:2).”
This got the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission which convened a grand jury in Houston for the Southern District of Texas, the jurisdiction for Enron‟s corporate headquarters. On March 7, 2002, the grand jury returned its indictment.Andersen, through its partners and others, did knowingly, intentionally and corruptly persuade and attempt to persuade other
persons, to wit: Andersen employees, with intent to cause and induce such persons to (a) withhold records, documents and other objects from official proceedings, namely regulatory and criminal proceedings and investigations, and (b) alter, destroy, mutilate, and conceal objects with intent to impair the objects‟ integrity and availability for use in such official proccedings (Buell and Weissmann, 7-8).
The indictment was announced March 14. On April 9, a grand jury returned an indictiment against David Duncan, the onsite account manager of Arthur Anderson assigned to Enron. The trial began May 6. On Monday, May 13, David Duncan testified for the prosecution and would be back on the stand for four more days. The case went to the jury on June 5. It took them ten days to find Andersen guilty. Andersen appealed, of course. On June 24, 2004, the Fifth District Court of Appeals found for the United States. The case went to the Supreme Court. SCOTUS overturned the conviction on May 31, 2005.
Much about the case begs attention. First of all, speculation about the indictments began almost as soon as Enron‟s true position became public. Contrast this, for instance, with the current bankruptcy of General Motors or the two bankruptcies of K-Mart. Neither was a surprise. Enron‟s fall was a surprise. Therefore, consequential repercussions were to be expected. Again, in comparison to street crime, high visibility cases put pressure on the police and prosecutors to find the perpetrator. Here, too, a story from The Wall Street Journal for January 22, 2002, speculated on the indictments far ahead of their being handed down. The speculators missed the fact that David Duncan had been fired on January 15. Arthur Andersen partners released Duncan specifically because he ordered the destruction, by shredding, of documents related to Enron as early as October 23 of the previous year (Toffler 214). Whether this was entirely on his own initiative or with the complicity or advice of his senior partner, Michael Odom, is not clear (Squires, et al. 126). Two opposing but equally true facts operate. First, the destruction of relevant documents – even potentially relevant materials – was contrary to the guidelines of Arthur Andersen‟s Professional Standards Group (Squires, et al. 125). But, also, many of the documents destroyed were obviously trivial: duplicates, solicitations from charities, magazines, and the like (Morrison 2004:359; Morrison 2005,32). Moreover, reconstructions of emails show David Duncan consulting with Nancy Temple, an attorney of the firm, on October 12, October 23, and at other times, concerning the policies on document retention. In every instance, it is clear that Temple
counseled for complete honesty and that Duncan complied – or at worst thought mistakenly that he had complied (Morrison 2005, 30). Nonetheless, Duncan was fired. He was then indicted and turned state‟s witness, contradicting for the prosecution the facts he had established for Arthur Andersen. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that Duncan changed his plea when the Andersen conviction was overturned.
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