Court Overturns Arthur Andersen Conviction

"A setback for the Bush administration"
Bullshit



WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm for destroying Enron Corp.-related documents before the energy giant's collapse.
In a unanimous opinion, justices said the former Big Five accounting firm's June 2002 conviction was improper. It said the jury instructions at trial were too vague and broad for jurors to determine correctly whether Andersen obstructed justice.

"The jury instructions here were flawed in important respects," Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the court.

The ruling is a setback for the Bush administration, which made prosecution of white-collar criminals a high priority following accounting scandals at major corporations. After Enron's 2001 collapse, the Justice Department went after Andersen first.

Enron crashed in December 2001, putting more than 5,000 employees out of work, just six weeks after the energy company revealed massive losses and writedowns.

Subsequently, as the Securities and Exchange Commission began looking into Enron's convoluted finances, Andersen put in practice a policy calling for destroying unneeded documentation.

Government attorneys argued that Andersen should be held responsible for instructing its employees to "undertake an unprecedented campaign of document destruction."
http://kevxml2adsl.verizon.net/_1_9DBTO10GMJ47J__vzn.dsl/apnws/story.htm?kcfg=apart&feed=ap&sin=D8AE77VO1&qcat=finance&passqi=&top=1&ran=26182

"The ruling is a setback for the Bush administration" Not a set back at all.

"which made prosecution of white-collar criminals a high priority following accounting scandals at major corporations..."

Ken Lay still walks the street...

The shrub even appointed an Enron Exec to be his Secretary of the Army. His name is something _ _ _ White I believe.

If I am not mistaken, the Secretary of the Army also accepted the Haliburten bid on the Iraq oil fields without any competing bids as well.

"The ruling is a setback for the Bush administration, which made prosecution of white-collar criminals a high priority"

This is laughable. However, it is true they prosecuted Martha Stewart for a 40K deal. "Setback" my ass!

If I'm driving at 100 mph, and don't know it because I'm stupid or to busy on the cell phone, this Supreme Court says I not guilty of speeding!! Only a corporation enjoys this kind of stone wall protection from this nations highest court. The employees destruction of Enron documents during the investigation HAD to be a huge storm around Anderson & company, not a passive house cleaning routine. These guys are all attourneys or are literally surrounded by attourneys, at Anderson's high power accounting "firm". Firms are legal entities, folks, not automotive garages! In short, this is politics for the power brokers.

...if you let the executives running the corporation skate!

off the hook and it's a SETBACK?
:wtf:

back for federal prosecutors. They can't over reach and create crimes at their whim, just cause they want to.

http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/04-368.ZO.html

Arthur Anderson was NOT Enron - WAS NOT ENRON or responsible for the lies of enron, though the gov tried to make them ENRON'S scapegoat and whipping boy.

Read the opinion, it is actually a great opinion. :hi:

to let the dudes off