Congressional investigators will subpoena senior officials of the Arthur Andersen LLP auditing firm, including the chief executive and a fired auditor, in an effort to force their testimony today about the destruction of documents related to failed energy giant Enron Corp.
Ken Johnson, spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the panel's chairman, Representative Billy Tauzin, would sign the four subpoenas Tuesday night.
Subpoenas are going to Andersen chief executive Joseph Berardino, fired auditor David Duncan, attorney Nancy Temple and risk manager Michael Odom.
Duncan was dismissed by Andersen last week for his role in the extensive destruction of Enron-related documents after federal regulators began investigating possible irregularities in the failed energy company's accounting.
Enron entered the largest bankruptcy in US history on Dec. 2.
Robert Giuffra, one of his attorneys, said Tuesday evening that no decision had been made on whether Duncan would testify. "We have not received a subpoena," he said.
Temple and Odom, while expressing willingness to testify, have raised concerns about protecting confidential information relating to the investigation, Johnson said.
He noted that the firm's chief executive had been interviewed over the weekend on television.
"He should be able to find the time to appear at a congressional hearing. ... No one's getting a free pass on this one," Johnson said.
Berardino voluntarily testified at the first congressional hearings on Enron last month, defending Andersen's work for Enron but acknowledging that financial reporting practices must change. He said Andersen notified Enron's audit committee on Nov. 2 of "possible illegal acts within the company." Berardino did not mention the document shredding. More recently, he said executives of the Chicago-based firm didn't learn of the destruction until shortly after New Year's.
Patrick Dorton, an Andersen spokesman, said, "We have not received a subpoena. We have told the committee that we would testify but the only question is when."
News of the planned subpoenas came as FBI agents and federal prosecutors entered Enron's Houston headquarters to investigate allegations that massive document destruction took place at the company starting in late November and continuing until as recently as last week.
The Securities and Exchange Commission started looking into Enron's accounting in mid-October, after the company reported a third-quarter loss of more than US$600 million. The SEC's inquiry eventually included demands for financial documents from Enron and Andersen.
In a sprawling inquiry with both financial and political overtones, 11 House and Senate committees are investigating the Enron debacle, while the Justice Department and the SEC pursue their own less visible probes.
President George W. Bush urged Congress on Tuesday not to be distracted by the Enron investigation.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS