Arthur Andersen LLP v.

United States

Facts:

 Arthur Andersen instructed its employees to destroy Enron-related documents. This

was consistent with Andersen's document retention policy.

 The government later charged Andersen for violating federal law, which made it a
crime to "knowingly...corruptly persuade another person" to "withold" or "alter"
documents in an "offical proceeding."

 The federal jury found Andersen guilty. The company appealed, arguing the jury
instructions failed to convey the elements of a "corrupt persuasion" conviction -
specifically, that a "consciousness of wrongdoing" was required

 The Court reversed the reversed and remanded the conviction, because the jury
instructions did not adequately convey the “knowingly and corruptly persuade”
requirement.

 Unanimous decision

 one of the Big Five accounting firms,

 over $9 billion in sales during 2001.
 85,000 employees working in 84 countries
 audits the financial statements of most publicly traded companies in the U.S
 Andersen served as Enron's sole auditor throughout the energy giant's
sixteen years, also performing internal audits and consulting services.

 Removing “Smoking Guns” - Prior to Litigation: Arthur Anderson LLP v. U.S.,

544 U.S. 696 (2005): that “under ordinary circumstances, it is not wrongful
for a manager to instruct his employees to comply with a valid document
retention policy, even though the policy, in part, is created to keep certain
information from others, including the govt.”