[Bobby777]

it's a shame for many people employed there ... but apparently many AA partners have no problem lying about bankrupt corporations all over the world ... ripping off good people with their money invested in 401k's ... goodbye AA ...

[Roger_W_Isom]

I'm HONESTLY surprised that AA has lasted THIS long.... Given YOUNGS refusal to accept a merger that tells me ALL I need to know.....

[Chemnitz]

Don't forget that AA OK'ed the Baptist Foundation in Arizona, a vast ponzi scheme, right into bankruptcy. AA just settled for several hundred million bucks. I seldom hear much sympathy for ordinary Baptists who were promised enormous returns, turned over all their savings to the foundation, and lost it all. That is a true betrayal. I think anyone could see that Enron was odd, with its commercials of a man in a metal suit crying "Why? Why? Why?"

The WS Journal said AA was once the gold standard in auditing. The whole purpose of a CPA (public accountant) is to make sure that public companies are properly financed. Greed changed that into giving a stamp of approval on shady dealings. This is yet another outgrowth of the Clinton-greed years. No, it's not all Clinton's fault this time, but he set the standards at rock bottom.

[Leisler]

Yeh, and there where a lot of good Germans. Too bad about the Nazis. But that is the nature of large, warm, fuzy organizations. You're rice bowl is full untill the stuff hits the fan, and then it's a crying game about how your pencils were always sharp and your desk clean.

[Rubber Ducky]

The outfit I used to work for once got audited by a famous regional firm just one tier below Arthur Andersen once. Coincidently, they had strong ties to one of the local politicians who were trying to dig dirt up on us so his cronies could take over. Our regular CPA offered to do the job for $500. The regional came in at 10 times that amount.

Guess which one the county commisson selected? Well, come the day of the audit, they send a team of rookies fresh out of college to poke through all our records, ask questions and generally waste 10 hours or so over the next week.

Then they retreat to the HQ and volia', a month or two later they produce a report for the commission which can find no wrongdoing but which dwells on penny-ante stuff like we don't have three people opening the mail (in a two person office), we're not letting bids out to enough contractors, particularly those with political connections and other horse manure.

Of course, shennagians which we reported and would not cast a good light on their political bosses went unmentioned.

Then they have the audicity to sign the names of the owners to the report as if they did any of the actual work. I told the rookies who sat in on the meeting that I hoped they would be able to find honest jobs when the firm went the direction Arthur Andersen appears headed now.