David Duncan, the government's key witness in its prosecution of Arthur Andersen LLP, said the company's plans for destroying Enron Corp documents were "generally understood" by employees of the accounting firm.
"I saw people cleaning out their office area and I saw people shred documents," Duncan said in testimony today. Duncan said he was reminded by Andersen lawyer Nancy Temple of a company policy on getting rid of extraneous documents.
Andersen, Enron's auditor for 16 years, is accused of obstructing a federal investigation into whether fraud caused the energy trader to file the biggest bankruptcy in history in December.
Duncan, the former lead auditor on the Enron account, said Temple told him extraneous documents "are often used against us in litigation. A plaintiffs' lawyer can take the most innocent thing and make it look" guilty, Duncan said on his second day of testimony at the accounting firm's criminal trial in Houston.
The policy required removing documents at the end of the audit season in March, not in October and November, when Andersen employees started the destruction, Duncan said.
Duncan told employees in an Oct. 23 meeting to comply with the document retention policy. Although he never directly ordered them to shred the documents, Duncan said it was "understood" that they should dispose of the papers, he testified.
The meeting was spurred by concerns of civil litigation, a US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into Enron, possible restated Enron earnings, and an unfavorable analysts' call, he said.
"I went through my desk files and gathered documents that I thought were extraneous and gave them to my secretary to get rid of," Duncan said. He said he didn't know his actions were illegal at the time. They were "entirely appropriate," he thought, until receiving a subpoena, he said.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS