The real villian which cooked the books and lied to stock holders is Arthur Andersen.
Thanks to DemonicRat Senator Dodd who receive outrageous amounts of money, Arthur Andersen was enabled to be able to lie, collect massive consulting fees and be freed from penalties when their clients/companies go belly up! Dodd got a bill passed that even the Bent One vetoed, that enabled Arthur Andersen to do its vile deeds.
It was on account of Dodd's tireless efforts that Arthur Andersen was able to act as both "independent auditor" and management consultant to Enron for $100 million a year.
That role - so fraught with conflict of interest that it makes a joke of the concept of outside auditors protecting shareholders - has been identified as one of the major causes of the debacle.
In 1995, it was Dodd who rammed through legislation, overriding President Clinton's veto, to protect firms like Andersen from lawsuits in cases just like Enron.
The Dodd bill limited liability for lawyers and accountants for "aiding and abetting" corporate fraud by their clients, making them liable only for their "proportionate" share of the blame, rather than for the entire fraud.
So, if an accounting firm kept secret the true picture of a corporation's finances, it would only be liable for part of the total fraud on the investors. For shareholders, this law is awful - the fraudulent company has usually lost nearly all its value before the shareholder learns about it, so there's nothing left.
For the accounting firm, though, it's great - the shareholders can't pin the total losses on you. And from Andersen's point of view, it was really wonderful, because they were already facing thousands of lawsuits for their role in securities fraud.
A grateful accounting industry showed its appreciation to Sen. Dodd by contributing $345,903 to his campaign between 1993 and 1997. Every major accounting firm pitched in - Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, Coopers & Lybrand, Peat Marwick, Price Waterhouse. (Dodd has received more money from Arthur Andersen than any other Democrat - $54,843.)
From '93 to '97, Dodd also received $523,551 from the securities industry, which was thrilled with other provisions of the '95 law that limited liability from securities lawsuits, notably for firms that failed to live up to their predictions about future earnings. Consumer groups had opposed the legislation -
For the full sickening story, go to (Dodd, the enabler of Arthur Andersen and corporate crooks)
Dodd, DemonicRat, who helps the big crooks and $crews the rest of America!
This is the big story that the left wing super rich mediots who control the media are trying spike and avoid.
This is why the Wh$re is in charge of the GAO is going after Dick Cheney. This Wh$re was a former partner of Arthur Andersen and was appointed by the Clintoon. We need to investigate the millions of our tax $'s that went to Arthur Anderson that were authorized by their wh$re in charge of the GAO!