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Arthur Andersen LLP


Self Description

January 2002: "Andersen is a global leader in professional services. It provides integrated solutions that draw on diverse and deep competencies in consulting, assurance, tax, corporate finance, and in some countries, legal services." http://www.andersen.com/website.nsf/content/MediaCenter?OpenDocument "Andersen is more than 85,000 strong, with 390 offices in 84 countries." http://www.andersen.com/website.nsf/content/AboutUs?OpenDocument

Third-Party Descriptions

June 2008: "On May 14, 2001, Joseph A. Ripp, the newly appointed chief financial officer of America Online, faxed a letter to the Las Vegas offices of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen with disturbing news: it appeared that an AOL business partner, and Arthur Andersen client, had forged a signature on a contract and booked several million dollars of sham revenue."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/business/media/09aol.html

January 2002: Arthur Andersen tried yesterday to salvage its reputation by firing a partner who it said had directed the destruction of Enron (news/quote) documents. But the actions it said the partner took have left Andersen facing the likelihood of criminal investigations even as it tries to reassure the public, and its clients, that its audits can be trusted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/16/business/16ACCO.html

April 2006: The guidelines, contained in the so-called Thompson memorandum, written by Larry D. Thompson, the deputy attorney general at the time, lay out factors that prosecutors can weigh when deciding whether to seek an indictment of a company — a virtual death knell for many companies, as it was for the accounting firm Arthur Andersen in 2002. Among the guidelines is to stop advancing lawyers' fees to employees caught up in investigations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/17/business/17legal.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) Sunbeam Products Organization Dec 11, 2006
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Joseph F. Berardino Person Aug 26, 2006
Organization Executive (past or present) Charles A. Bowsher Person Aug 29, 2006
Formerly Owned by (partial or full) David B. Duncan Person Jun 2, 2005
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Leonard Spacek Person Sep 7, 2006
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Paul A. Volcker Person
Organization Executive (past or present) David M. Walker CPA Person Feb 18, 2007

Articles and Resources

41 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Jul 14, 2012 Goldman Sachs and the $580 Million Black Hole

QUOTE: With Goldman Sachs on the job, the corporate takeover of Dragon Systems in an all-stock deal went terribly wrong. Goldman collected millions of dollars in fees — and the Bakers lost everything when Lernout & Hauspie was revealed to be a spectacular fraud.

 New York Times
Jun 09, 2008 From a Whistle-Blower to a Target

QUOTE: On May 14, 2001, Joseph A. Ripp, the newly appointed chief financial officer of America Online, faxed a letter to the Las Vegas offices of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen with disturbing news: it appeared that an AOL business partner, and Arthur Andersen client, had forged a signature on a contract and booked several million dollars of sham revenue.

 New York Times
Apr 09, 2008 In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Trials

QUOTE: Deferred prosecutions have become a favorite tool of the Bush administration. But some legal experts now wonder if the policy shift has led companies, in particular financial institutions now under investigation for their roles in the subprime mortgage debacle, to test the limits of corporate anti-fraud laws.

 New York Times
Aug 31, 2006 Look Who's Left Standing: Legal Penalties in Frauds Are Seldom Paid by Legal Advisers

QUOTE: Four years after regulators launched a task force to stamp out business corruption, numerous chief executives are on their way to prison, two of the nation's biggest accounting firms are defunct or on probation, and investment banks have shelled out billions of dollars in settlements....Unlike the accounting profession, forced by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 to submit to independent oversight, lawyers have generally ducked proposals that would have forced them to blow the whistle to outsiders.

 Washington Post
Aug 01, 2006 Avoiding an Andersen

QUOTE: The government is on a let's-make-a-deal spree with corporate America. In the first six months of this year, the U.S. Department of Justice completed at least 12 deferred prosecution or nonprosecution agreements with companies. By contrast, only eight such deals were signed in all of last year, which was already a record high.

 Law.com
Jun 27, 2006 Judge blasts pressure put on KPMG over legal fees

QUOTE: A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the U.S. Attorney's office unfairly pressured the KPMG accounting firm not to pay the legal expenses of former partners who have been charged with selling abusive tax shelters.

 USA TODAY
Apr 17, 2006 Judges Press Companies That Cut Off Legal Fees

QUOTE: Federal judges are beginning to question why companies are cutting off legal fees to their executives when they become caught up in criminal investigations...This shift from a long tradition of paying such costs, one that is codified in many companies' bylaws and in some states' laws, has come since the Justice Department set guidelines in 2003 amid a sweeping crackdown on corporate fraud.

 New York Times
Jul 29, 2005 How E-Mail Is Revolutionizing Litigation -- and What You Should Be Doing About It

QUOTE: In litigation, the truth does not always matter. What does matter is the persuasiveness of the evidence. All other things being equal, if your adversary's testimony seems more credible to the judge or jury than your testimony, your adversary will likely win, no matter who's telling the truth.

 Law.com
Jun 17, 2005 Regretful KPMG Asks for a Break: Audit Firm Argues Charges Unnecessary

QUOTE: "Accounting firm KPMG LLP is engaged in what could be life-or-death negotiations with the Justice Department over whether it will face criminal charges related to its marketing of abusive tax shelters during the 1990s."

 Washington Post
Jun 11, 2005 Citigroup to Settle With Enron Investors: $2 Billion Payment Covered by Reserves

QUOTE: Despite recent signs of push-back against corporate governance reforms and a few setbacks in business fraud prosecutions, legal experts said the huge settlement underscores that gatekeepers such as investment bankers and auditors will be held accountable for helping clients mislead investors about their financial health.

 Washington Post
Jun 01, 2005 Justices Overturn Andersen Conviction: Advice to Enron Jury On Accountants' Intent Is Faulted

QUOTE: The Supreme Court overturned the 2002 criminal conviction of Enron Corp.'s accounting firm yesterday, nullifying with a single stroke one of the government's biggest victories in the corporate scandals that climaxed the bull market of the 1990s.

 Washington Post
Jul 02, 2004 1,500 Own Up To Abuse of Tax Shelter: IRS to Give Offenders Breaks on Penalties

QUOTE: More than 1,500 taxpayers have admitted to the Internal Revenue Service that they used the Son of Boss tax shelter, which the agency estimates cost the government more than $6 billion in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

 Washington Post
Jun 25, 2004 Board Finds Problems in Audit Firms: Accountability Issues Remain at Big Four

QUOTE: ...significant problems at the nation's four biggest audit firms continue as they struggle "to regain credibility after confidence-rattling financial scandals over the past three years".

 Washington Post
Sep 26, 2003 Dot-Com Audit Leads to Arrest of Accountant

QUOTE: Federal prosecutors have charged a former Ernst & Young partner with obstructing an investigation into a failed dot-com, making him one of the first to be charged for that offense under 2002's Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Law.com
Sep 15, 2002 Corporate Scandals Tainting Donations

QUOTE: ...a moral dilemma for universities, museums, charities and politicians wondering whether they have been the inadvertent beneficiaries of ill-gotten dollars....Under law, gifts traceable to the proceeds of a crime are in most cases subject to forfeiture.

 Washington Post
Aug 29, 2002 Fast and Loose At WorldCom: Lack of Controls, Pressure to Grow Set Stage for Financial Deceptions

QUOTE: [WorldCom Inc.] was plagued by loose business practices, inadequate financial disclosure, and widespread internal chicanery and corruption...a grow-at-any-cost culture that made it possible for employees and managers to game the system internally and to deceive investors about the health of the business.

 Washington Post
Aug 09, 2002 Worldcom Auditors Find More Errors

QUOTE: WorldCom Inc.'s internal auditors have uncovered an additional $3.8 billion in improper accounting...

 Washington Post
Aug 01, 2002 Credibility and Corporate Scandals: Put Your Mouth Where Your Money Is

QUOTE: Under the current circumstances, ignoring, denying, downplaying, or "spinning" the widespread crisis of trust in business and investment is, frankly, extremely misguided.

 Contentious.com
Jul 15, 2002 Worldcom Ignored Workers' Concerns

QUOTE: As far back as 2000, WorldCom Inc. employees challenged the company's accounting and...raised those concerns with auditor Arthur Andersen LLP.

 Washington Post
Jul 10, 2002 House Panel Targets U.S. Firms Using Foreign Tax Havens

QUOTE: The House Appropriations Committee...voted to bar the federal government from awarding contracts to U.S. companies that use foreign tax havens.

 Washington Post

41 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]