It was alleged in their defense that the main office had sent a memo reminding the Houston Partner's office that the Document Retention Policy of AA called for (1) Work/Preliminary Documents be disposed of and (2) Final Documents and workpaper versions be retained and (3) if a legal inquiry was proceeding to preserve all documents that might be called for by law (my paraphrase). No the Main Office felt that such action showed their willingness to prevent destruction of evidence. The government contends (IMHO) that the Policy memo was a back-handed way of telling the branch office to "clean their house" of incriminating evidence.
The signifigance of the LLC being charged and not just a partner is that such would bar AA as a whole from conducting Audits needed for SEC filings -- i.e., puts them out of business absent an SEC waiver which stops only the Houston office. But you see, SEC wants to maintain a deep-pocket reservoir to go after for media results and doesn't want to let the whole company off the hook. Justice doesn't want to worry about the actual culprits cause that could shield the deep pockets/ big-trophy of the whold firm being charged so they name the entire firm first....more headlines.
Hell, the Enron CFO who perpetrated this whole shebang hasn't been charged....might as well put an arrogant ol' line Audit firm out of business....
I'm just a tad bitter about this whole thing though......after all we just spent 8 years with a criminal conspiracy in the executive being ignored by 80% of government and all of the media......but, hey, its a big-business, oil croney, Republican in office, doncha know.... gotta protect those 401k fools
message: Stealing is fine if you make sure you say you are liberal, a Democrat or in the legal profession.
I had a major accouting firm tell to me, I could do something I was not sure I could. I said, "If you are wrong, you are in a lot of trouble." Being an honest accountant he said ,"No when an accountant is wrong it is the client that is in a lot of trouble."
Perhaps Bush is putting the shoe on the right foot. If accountants are paid the big bucks, and sign off on stuff that turns out to be illegal, they should pay the price.
Anderson is history. It will be a very long time before another accounting firm pulls somthing this stupid or illegal in order to get a big hunk of short term money.