Business Law I Case Study Arthur Andersen Llp V. United States

Arthur Andersen LLP v. unite States The parties In Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States, the plaintiff was the United States. The United States was also the Appellee. Arthur Andersen is the defendant as well as the appellant. The history Arthur Andersen was found guilty at the panel trial. The U. S. romance of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit also affirmed him guilty. The U. S. Supreme Court reversed Andersens convictions due to flawed instrument panel instructions. The facts Arthur Anderson formed a crisis-response team shortly after the Wall Street Journal had suggested the issues at Enron.The company kept back up the employees to follow Andersens document store form _or_ system of government and Odom stated that If documents are undone in the course of the normal policy and litigation is filed the next day, thats great Weve followed our own policy, and whatever in that location was that tycoon have been of interest to somebody is gone and irretrievable. As Enron went chth onic the heat of informal to formal investigation with requests for documentation, the company kept encouraging its employees to follow the policy. It wasnt until the SEC served Enron and Andersen with serves for records that they told their employees to stop shredding and the game was over. The plaintiffs theory The jury and Court of Appeals found that the above actions made the supplicant guilty of violating Title 18 of the United States Code that provides criminal sanctions for those who baffle justice. They believed he intentionally had the knowledge of what was going on and intentionally destroyed the documents that proved the scandal to be true.The defendants theory Arthur Anderson believed that he was only following his companys policy by ensuring it was being followed. He did non violate a law because once he was served the subpoena, the document shredding halted immediately. The legal issue Did Arthur Anderson violate Title 18 of the United States Code by knowingly pers uading his employees to shred documents with intent to impair the approachability of those documents for use in an official proceeding?The holding of the court no Andersens conviction could not stand due to the flawed jury instructions. Therefore, the conviction was reversed by the U. S. Supreme Court. Personal survey I do not believe this case was correctly decided. However, there was not enough evidence to convict him. The Supreme Court ruled the serious decision based on the books. It is obviously clear that the Arthur Andersen was a chicness man. Once he got tick in his ear that there might be trouble, he quickly found a way to de jure protect himself and the company. I find it interesting how persistent they were with the document policy. However, careless(predicate) of the perception it gives off, Andersen technically did not violate any laws according to the court. If he was guilty, no one would ever know. Im sure if the subpoena would have been served sooner, there wo uld have been a different outcome. But, this is only my opinion and it would not stand in the court system.