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The trial of nine defendants in the KPMG tax shelter case is due to get under way soon in New York. All nine-- eight former KPMG partners and one outside lawyer-- have pleaded not guilty, despite an admission of wrongdoing by the company and a pledge by KPMG to cooperate with the government.... KPMG's cooperation with the feds was part of the price it paid to avoid a threatened indictment of the firm as a whole. As Arthur Andersen learned the hard way, that would have been a death sentence. KPMG has also agreed to cut its former partners off...

KPMG avoided the fate of Arthur Andersen yesterday... over the marketing and sale of "abusive" tax shelters. But the price of survival was high. The accounting firm will pay $456 million in fines and restitution and has agreed to let a federal monitor look over its shoulder. At the same time, no fewer than eight former KPMG executives and an outside lawyer were indicted on conspiracy charges for designing and selling the shelters.... KPMG will survive this "deferred prosecution" by admitting wrongdoing. But it's easy to forget amid the righteous indignation over tax shelters with names like FLIP, BLIP, OPIS...

The Supreme Court has now ruled that it was excessive prosecutorial zeal and inadequate jury instruction that destroyed Arthur Andersen in 2002, not the merits of the federal obstruction-of-justice case.... Thus, the excesses of a few corporate swingers led to suspicions that hanky-panky was the ruling ethos in every corporate boardroom. Naderites, Hollywood pundits, Marxist professors and left-wing journals piled on with assurances that they had been right about capitalists all along. [A] Congress never reluctant to make work for fellow lawyers whooped through the Sarbanes-Oxley bill.... The sour public mood has had other effects. Staffers at the Securities and...

June 3, 2005 Arthur Andersen and the Innocent Criminals The importance of a guilty mind Jacob Sullum If Arthur Andersen were a man on death row, he could be released after his conviction was overturned. But the accounting firm, which was ruined by a 2002 witness tampering indictment that scared away its clients, is beyond saving. As a law professor told The New York Times, "The government gave the corporation a death sentence, and the corporation died." Andersen, which once had 28,000 employees in the United States, has been reduced to a skeleton crew of 200. The U.S. Supreme...

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court tossed the conviction of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, saying that the judges instructions to the jury were not defined well enough. Unfortunately, there isn't anyone at Arthur Andersen to celebrate the victory. Almost all of the accounting firms employees lost their jobs following Andersen's demise over the shredfest at Enron. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote "The jury instructions at issue simply failed to convey the requisite consciousness of wrongdoing, It is striking how little culpability the instructions required."

As a unanimous Supreme Court... announced its reversal of the 2002 criminal conviction of Arthur Andersen for shredding Enron-related documents, our first thought was: ..."Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?" Except that in this case, even if the proverbial office existed, there is no one left at Andersen to knock on the front door and demand restitution. The accounting giant, which once employed 28,000 people in the U.S. and 85,000 world-wide, is essentially no more. There's still an office in Chicago, but the fewer than 200 people who work there handle leftover legal and administrative...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm for destroying Enron Corp.-related documents before the energy giant's collapse. In a unanimous opinion, justices said the former Big Five accounting firm's June 2002 obstruction-of-justice conviction _ which virtually destroyed Andersen _ was improper. The decision said jury instructions at trial were too vague and broad for jurors to determine correctly whether Andersen obstructed justice. "The jury instructions here were flawed in important respects," Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the court. The ruling is a setback for the Bush administration, which made...

WASHINGTON, April 27 - The federal government had a hard time three years ago obtaining a conviction of Arthur Andersen for having shredded its Enron documents as the energy company, its major client, was imploding. A jury in Houston took 10 days and declared itself deadlocked before convicting the accounting firm of a single criminal count of witness tampering. But the challenge the government faced then looked easy compared with the one confronting it in the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning as the justices heard Arthur Andersen's appeal. The justices were so clearly sympathetic to Andersen, with Justice Antonin Scalia...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said today it will consider overturning Arthur Andersen LLP's conviction for destroying and altering Enron Corp.-related documents. Justices will review a New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that upheld the former Big Five accounting firm's June 2002 conviction. At issue is whether the jury instructions at trial were too vague and broad for jurors to determine correctly what constituted obstruction of justice. Andersen was charged with obstruction of justice for inducing mass destruction of Enron-related documents in late 2001 as the Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating the energy company's convoluted finances....

...In an era of general acceptance of deregulation and privatization, Mr. Spitzer has introduced the world to yet a new form of regulation, the use of the criminal law as an in terrorem weapon to force acceptance of industry-wide regulations. These rules are not vetted through normal authoritative channels, are not reviewable by any administrative process, and are not subject to even the minimal due-process requirements our courts require for normal administrative rule making. The whole process bears no resemblance to a rule of law; it is a reign of force. And to make matters worse, the regulatory remedies are...

From where I sit this week, knowing what I know today about CBS and Dan Rather's "Memogate", I'd say it's entirely possible that the whole CBS News empire could instantly implode the way that Enron and Arthur Andersen did. A few years ago, in the roaring 90's stock market environment, Enron and Arthur Andersen were giants in their respective fields. Enron in the energy business, Arthure Anderson in the accounting realm. Both almost untouchable mega companies with thousands of employees. Today they are both gone. Zilch. Nada. Game over. see more at http://partisannewsjunkie.blogspot.com

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Former Enron CEO and Chairman Kenneth Lay will likely be indicted this week, sources close to the investigation told CNN Monday. While a last-minute delay was still possible, federal authorities involved with the Justice Department's Enron Task Force expect a federal grand jury next week will return an indictment of Lay, these people said, speaking on condition that they not be identified. They would not discuss what charges might be brought against Lay. The Justice Department would not comment on the reports of a possible indictment. Lay, 62, guided Enron for years, shaping the once-obscure pipeline...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former Enron Corp. (Other OTC:ENRNQ - news) chief executive Jeff Skilling likely was indicted on Wednesday by a federal grand jury and was expected to surrender to the FBI (news - web sites) in Houston on Thursday, a newspaper reported. The Houston Chronicle cited unnamed sources saying that Skilling, 50, was believed to have been named in a sealed indictment handed up to U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy by the grand jury foreman. The grand jury, which was formed nearly two years ago for the Enron cases that followed the former energy giant's collapse into bankruptcy, met...

think3, the fastest growing company in the product lifecycle management (PLM) industry, today announced that former Andersen Consulting Chief Executive Officer George T. Shaheen has joined its board of directors. During the 10 years Shaheen led Andersen Consulting (today known as Accenture), annual revenue of the global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing firm increased nine-fold to nearly $10 billion. Accenture ended its 2003 fiscal year with $11.82 billion in net revenue. "think3 already has achieved many milestones on its road to global success," Shaheen said. "I look forward to working with think3's management team to bring to market industry-leading...

BEFORE THE BELL-2: Freddie Mac Fires Op Chief; CFO Leaves Freddie Mac (FRE) shares were down after announcing management departures and bad news about earnings restatements early Monday. The mortgage-finance company's chief financial officer, Vaughn Clarke, will resign, and the company's chief operating officer and president, David Glenn, has been fired due to questions about his honesty to the company's audit committee counsel. Freddie Mac also said earlier restatements for fiscal 2000, 2001 and 2002 results will likely be completed by late in the third quarter. Shares fell to $50.60, down 15%, or $9.27, from their Friday close of $59.87....

TIMING IS EVERYTHING in humor, but the jokes told by a few former Enron executives on a recently surfaced videotape border on bad taste in light of the events of the past year. The tape, made for the January 1997 going-away party for former Enron President Rich Kinder, features nearly 30 minutes of absurd skits, songs and testimonials by company executives and prominent Houstonians. The collection is all meant in good fun, but some of the comments are ironic in the current climate of corporate scandal. In one skit, former administrative executive Peggy Menchaca plays the part of Kinder as...

Feds seek $548 million, allege fraud and negligence CHICAGO, Nov. 1 — The government filed a $548 million fraud and negligence lawsuit Friday against accounting giant Ernst & Young in connection with the failure of a Chicago bank in 2001. http://www.msnbc.com/news/829311.asp

During the business segment at ten to the hour on NPR’s Monring Edition, they had a story that revealed that the Clinton SEC virtually stopped regulating the IPO market until late 1999. The private sector NASDAQ did not enforce their rules any better because both organizations saw a steady decline in IPO fraud, kickback and other white-collar crime enforcement since 1990 despite the skyrocketing number of IPOs during the Dot.com era. These two organizations were completey blind (or purposely blinded) to the behavior going on Wall Street at the time, the public is just now learning about some of the...

www.PoliticalMoneyLine.comwww.FECInfo.comwww.tray.comLOBBYING EXPENDITURES DID NOT FALTER IN LAST SIX MONTHS OF 2001Washington, DC (July 5, 2002) With the Congressional agenda drastically changed after the 9/11 attack, and a slow economy in the last six months of 2001, federal lobbying of the Legislative and Executive branches by organizations kept pace with its normal trend of slightly increasing in the second half of the year. Federal lobbying expenditures by organizations and lobbyists exceeded $804 million ($804,117,372) for the last six months of 2001, according to a report by PoliticalMoneyLine (www.PoliticalMoneyLine.com), an online disclosure service tracking money in politics. The staggering size and depth...

The corporate world is now embroiled in two controversies. There's the fraud at Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen, and elsewhere; and there's the payment of absurd sums to CEOs. Both developments threaten the free-market system--you're kidding yourself if you don't think that big firms deliberately duping investors, or CEOs awarding themselves hundreds of millions of dollars that should have gone to stockholders, does anything other than erode the reputation of market economics. Both practices also trample important principles of conservative economics, as we'll see in a moment. But the two controversies really aren't separate--they are one and the same. The motive...

June 17, 2002 Andersen Trial Yields Evidence in Enron's FallBy KURT EICHENWALD OUSTON, June 16 — Evidence introduced at the criminal trial of Arthur Andersen indicates for the first time that an improper accounting decision — which set in motion Enron's destruction — served mainly to benefit the financial interests of a single corporate insider, according to court documents and accountants involved in the case. While the decision brought few if any benefits to Enron itself, these accountants said, it did help to protect the financial health of an outside partnership managed by the company's chief financial officer then, Andrew...

Andersen convicted of obstructing justice 06/15/2002 Associated Press HOUSTON - Arthur Andersen was convicted Saturday of obstructing justice by shredding Enron-related documents in a verdict that could be the death knell for the shattered accounting firm and one that boosts prosecutors' efforts to get to the bottom of the Enron scandal. The jury took 72 hours over 10 days to decide that the destruction of paper and computer files was not routine housekeeping, as Andersen contended, but an attempt to thwart federal regulators investigating Enron. Andersen faces up to five years of probation and a fine of up to...

HOUSTON (AP) -- The jury trying to decide whether Arthur Andersen obstructed justice by shredding Enron-related documents announced Wednesday that they were deadlocked. U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon told attorneys that she planned to order jurors to continue deliberations, which reached a seventh day Wednesday. Andersen is accused of shredding documents and wiping out computer records related to Enron last year to thwart a Securities and Exchange Commission probe of the energy company's accounting practices. The firm argued that its promotion of a document policy that calls for destruction of unneeded papers was a routine effort to organize files....

<p>AUSTIN, Texas (AP) The state's accounting board filed a notice Thursday to revoke Arthur Andersen LLP's accounting license in Texas because of its role in Enron Corp.'s collapse, the board's executive director said.</p> <p>The Texas State Board of Public Accountancy also is asking for at least $1 million in fines and penalties.</p>

HOUSTON, May 5 — Arthur Andersen LLP’s federal trial for obstruction could be the knockout punch in the company’s fight to survive client losses, fleeing partners and severe damage to its reputation. Unless attorneys reach a last-minute settlement, jury selection will begin Monday in the first criminal trial to emerge from Enron Corp.’s collapse last year. “ALL THE TRIAL will do is allow the Justice Department to bring a lot more dirt out on Andersen and drive the stake deeper into its heart,” said Arthur Bowman, editor of Atlanta-based Bowman’s Accounting Report, an industry publication. Andersen is charged with obstruction...

Phoenix, Arizona, April 26 (Bloomberg) -- When ArthurAndersen LLP officials enter a Phoenix courtroom Monday to defendthemselves against fraud claims tied to an Arizona religiousfoundation's collapse, they'll find Betty Ordorica in the frontrow sporting a little red flag on her blouse.     The flag is a symbol of the warning signals Andersen auditorsshould have waved in their reviews of the Baptist Foundation ofArizona's books, Ordorica says. Investors accuse Andersen ofconcealing fraud at the non-profit investment fund, which filedfor bankruptcy in 1999.     ''It will symbolize the anger and frustration we feel,'' saidOrdorica, who along with her husband Fred lost $130,000 in thefoundation's...

Search archives prior to Fall 2000  Andersen maintains presence at IU Andersen's business school recruitment down since Enron Adam VanOsdolIndiana Daily Student E-mail this story     Print this story Published Tuesday, April 2, 2002 When the news broke that auditing agency Arthur Andersen shredded Enron-related documents, the company's demise was supposed to be imminent. When Andersen was indicted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, when clients like Delta defected, and when the C.E.O. resigned, its demise was supposed to be swift. "(Alums) are extremely distressed that a few could destroy the image of their great company. I don't know what...

Panel: NASA Can't Manage Funds By Larry WheelerFLORIDA TODAYposted: 09:05 am ET21 March 2002 NASA's Money Problems Still Unsolved NASA Kills Europa Orbiter; Revamps Planetary Exploration NASA Chief Grapples With Agency Priorities Bush Official to Scientists: Expect More Scrutiny NASA Panel Endorses Scaling Back the ISS WASHINGTON -- Government and private auditors testified Wednesday that NASA has operated for years with an antiquated accounting system, making it almost impossible to track how billions of public dollars are spent. Since 1990, the General Accounting Office, Congress's investigative arm, warned lawmakers the space agency was headed for trouble without a modern...

Arthur Andersen indicted for obstruction of justice in Enron scandal NOTHING FOLLOWS YET

Report: Firm in Talks With Andersen Mon Mar 11,12:30 AM ETNEW YORK (AP) - Arthur Andersen, damaged by its connections to bankrupt client Enron Corp., is talking with Big Five accounting firm Deloitte amp;; Touche Tohmatsu about selling some or all of its operations, according to reports. Negotiations began last week between New York-based Deloitte and Chicago-based Arthur Andersen LLP, The New York Times reported late Sunday on its Web site. The newspaper cited sources involved in the talks who spoke anonymously.The Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) and other agencies are investigating Andersen's work for former energy...