Andersen loses final battle

Link: Andersen and the Enron saga

Andersen was found guilty 15 June 15, 2002, of destroying documents related to its audits of bankrupt energy giant Enron, its largest client. Its audit practice ceased operations in August of the same year.

Since then the firm has effectively disintegrated with its various arms around the world being sold off or merged into other Big Four firms. In the UK Deloitte brought in the partners from Andersen.

This latest ruling follows Andersen’s bid to get the court to reverse its conviction, urging errors in four evidentiary rulings, misconduct by the prosecutor in his rebuttal jury summation, and two legal contentions regarding required proof, WebCPA reported.

Circuit Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham wrote in a 42-page decision: ‘We are not persuaded that this conviction is flawed by reversible error and we affirm the judgement of conviction.’

‘Andersen provides no authority to justify reversal of the jury?s verdict, and we find none. To the contrary, Andersen?s various assertions are belied by the underlying events.’

Andersen was said to be disappointed but not surprised by the ruling.