The government has warned Arthur Andersen that obstruction of justice charges in the Enron investigation could be made public against it in as little as a week, and the firm is working withprosecutors to determine whether a resolution of the criminal case can be reached, people involved in the case said Thursday.
The talks between the two sides were said to be extremely fluid, with little certainty of how they will ultimately be resolved. People involved in the case said that Andersen had been sharing findings from its own lawyers' inquiry into shredding by the firm's executives last fall of documents related to Enron. That shredding would be the basis of any charges brought against the firm.
The discussions between the two sides are expected to continue for several more days as Andersen finishes the presentation of its finding and tries to persuade prosecutors that an indictment of the firm is unnecessary.
Andersen, the smallest of the Big Five accounting firms, is struggling to deal with the upheaval it has faced in the months since Enron collapsed amid accusations of widespread accounting irregularities.
Already, the firm has lost a number of prominent clients, including Delta Air Lines, which announced Thursday that it was replacing Andersen. A resolution of the criminal case could either be an important step to getting past the Enron debacle or create a flurry of new difficulties as it tries to right itself.
As the negotiations grow in seriousness, Andersen was said to have brought in new lawyers to deal with the criminal case, replacing the firm of Davis, Polk & Wardwell with lawyers from Mayer, Brown & Platt. Both firms, based in New York, are extremely respected, but legal experts said Thursday night that they could not think of another instance where a corporation facing potential charges revamped its legal team so late in the process.
It was not immediately clear whether the potential charges might be revealed through the handing up of a grand jury indictment or whether such charges had already been filed under seal. In some corporate cases, the government has chosen to file indictments under seal while continuing their investigations. The charges were then publicly revealed at a later date. The potential charges will have nothing to do with the underlying allegations of potential fraud at Enron; any case based on the financial and accounting issues surrounding the company are expected to be months away.
In preparing to bring the case just months after the collapse of Enron in December, prosecutors are signaling that the investigation will be handled with a relatively fast metabolism. Senior Justice Department officials have been said to be interested in bringing charges stemming from the Enron debacle quickly. Moreover, the chief prosecutor in the case, Leslie Caldwell, was said by defense lawyers to have a reputation as someone who likes to move at a comparatively rapid clip, increases the pressure on potential witnesses to reach deals with the government.
The obstruction-of-justice investigation began last fall after Andersen revealed that company executives had shredded a significant number of documents relating to the firm's work for Enron. Soon afterward, Andersen fired David Duncan, its partner in charge of auditing Enron Corp, saying he had ordered the destruction of thousands of documents and e-mail messages after learning that the SEC had begun an investigation of Enron's accounting.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
Foreign ministers of leading Western democracies sought to show a united front in Canada yesterday after seven weeks of rising tensions between US allies and US President Donald Trump over his upending of foreign policy on Ukraine and imposing of tariffs. The G7 ministers from the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, along with the EU, convened in the remote tourist town of La Malbaie, nestled in the Quebec hills, for two days of meetings that in the past have broadly been consensual on the issues they face. Top of the agenda for Washington’s partners would be getting a
RSS