Inside Arthur Andersen: Shifting Values, Unexpected Consequences

Chapter 9. Will Anything Really Change?

Regulating the Accounting Industry

In March 2003, Brendon McDonald, a former Arthur Andersen auditor, was arrested on charges that, in September 2001—a month before David Duncan began shredding at Enron—he had deleted emails, shredded documents, and otherwise helped American Tissue, a paper company, destroy records related to accusations of accounting fraud.^[1] In March 2003, Bristol-Myers Squibb lowered revenue by $2.5 billion in a restatement of financials between 1999 and 2001, citing errors and inappropriate accounting.^[2] About the same time, WorldCom announced that it had to write-down $79.8 billion in assets and goodwill.^[3] The story of trouble in U.S. business continues to unfold.

Large public ...