The Obituary
Founded in Chicago in 1913, Arthur Andersen built a reputation as the most rigorous of the great accounting firms and by 2001 employed roughly 85,000 people across the world as one of the “Big Five.” Its undoing was Enron. As Enron’s auditor, Andersen had blessed fraudulent books, and when investigators closed in, staff shredded relevant documents. In 2002 the firm was convicted of obstruction of justice and surrendered its licenses, dissolving almost entirely. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned the conviction in 2005, but by then there was nothing left to acquit.
Worth remembering
- At its 2001 peak it employed about 85,000 people worldwide and was one of the 'Big Five' auditors.
- Its conviction was overturned by a unanimous Supreme Court in 2005, three years too late to save it.
Sources
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.