Today in Supreme Court
news:
The Supreme Court will hear arguments today about whether to toss out a Houston jury's verdict convicting Enron's accountants, Arthur Andersen, of obstruction of justice.
At issue is whether U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon's instructions to the jury were so broad and vague that they could have caused an innocent company to be convicted for destroying documents in the normal course of business.
Pardon me while I clean up the coffee I spewed all over my desk.
Read the rest before you place your bets!
Business groups have backed Andersen's argument that innocent behavior could have been punished, and this could set a dangerous precedent for American businesses. Arthur Andersen once had 28,000 U.S. employees, but it largely dissolved after its indictment. Many of those employees went with the accounting firm's clients to the other firms. It now has about 200 employees.
Harmon, whose decisions were upheld by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sentenced Arthur Andersen to the maximum sentence of a $500,000 fine and five years' probation.
The Supreme Court's decision to take up the case surprised many involved. If the court reverses Arthur Andersen's conviction, it would be a huge blow to the prosecutors of the Enron Task Force since the government's decision to indict Arthur Andersen destroyed the company and the conviction was the group's first jury test.
On Tuesday, Andersen paid $65 million to settle another case involving WorldCom. Regulators and investors argued that Andersen should have flagged $11 billion in accounting fraud at WorldCom.
Being born and raised in the Houston area, I know how devestating the Enron fiasco was for the area. It's hard to be from Houston and not personally know someone who was affected. A few thousand folks lost their retirement savings. The already-strained job market was flooded by ex-Enron employees who's unemployment was jerked out from under them after a year of fruitless job searching.
Speaking for myself, I was laid off from my job of four years in July of 2003 and joined my fellow unemployed Houstonians in the job search. After several months of finding only entry level positions that offered 25k a year, I moved north to Maryland. I found a decent-paying job in one week.
Many people still face the daunting task of finding jobs in the Houston area, my mother being one of them. And while there are certainly other factors involved, most Houstonians will say, "It all started with Enron..." Someone else in the crowd will no doubt add "... and 9-11."
But I digress.
The point here is that I'm pretty sure Arthur Anderson isn't an innocent wittle accounting firm who needs our Supreme Court to protect them from the big bad Houston jury.
If I had my way, the business would be forced to close its doors and every CPA who worked with Enron and Worldcom would have their certifications revoked.