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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3-page paper describes what happened to Arthur Andersen, from a financial accounting perspective, following Enron. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_MTartand.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
company would go so far to twist its financial information just to make itself look better, or the fact that the auditor was complicit in the whole thing.
Going one step further, it was bad enough that Andersen condoned the Enron activities. But when it was discovered that Andersen was shredding the
damning evidence, this seemed to be the final straw. Andersens behavior ended up making the "Big Five" of U.S. accounting into the "Big Four."
What was the result of Andersens behavior? One result, of course, was the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley, which said that auditors, accountants and consultants needed to be separate from
one another (causing spin-off companies from the other accounting companies). Other areas that have been impacted have involved financial accounting -- on
the whole, transparency is touted, oversight boards a mandate for publicly traded companies and whistle-blowers treated like human beings, rather than pariahs.
Whats interesting to note, however, is that one defense on which Andersen has tried to defend itself has been the fact that it was lawful for the in-house counsel in
Chicago to suggest to Houstons firm partners that it was fine to shred documents and delete any e-mails related to the Enron case (Savage, 2005). Andersens policy, at the time,
was to hold on to key documents that pertained to an audit, but would get rid of notes, drafts and memos that might be produced during the audit (Savage, 2005).
Sarbanes-Oxely, needless to say, makes it illegal for any type of destruction of such documents in this day and age. This is considered obstruction of justice, and is considered to
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