Andersen in second Enron probe
Andersen has admitted to a second congressional committee it made 'honest errors' in its audit of Enron, the collapsed energy giant.
Appearing before congressmen for the second time in a week, the embattled Big Five firm said it had made a professional judgement about appropriate accounting treatment for an off-balance sheet partnership ‘that turned out to be wrong’.
This time it was CE Andrews, Andersen’s head of global auditing, who was in the firing line in front of the Senate Commerce Committee. Last week Andersen boss Joe Berardino was quizzed by the House Financial Services Committee, admitting his firm had got it wrong at Enron.
But both Berardino and Andrews claimed the firm had been denied crucial information about another off-balance sheet entity, saying that Enron’s audit committee had been notified of ‘possible illegal acts’.
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Cracks open in Big Five Enron alliance