Enron Case Essay

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Jay King February 27, 2008 MB 234 Case Write-up a. The ethical dilemma faced by the auditors is that Enron executives and leading executives from Arthur Anderson were pressuring them to “win at all costs.” The auditors at Arthur Anderson allowed its goals of generating revenue to interfere with its role of ensuring Enron’s accounting accuracy. b. Yes, I do believe it is fair that Arthur Anderson was put out of business by the actions of just one audit partner in Houston, Texas, because a company should be held liable for any felonies within its corporation, especially such an enormous misjudgment as the one by Arthur Anderson. Arthur Anderson agreed with Enron to make it look as if Enron had more revenue than it actually did, so that stockholders would value the stock more. Because Arthur Anderson committed such a blatant act of mistrust, even if its companies were open, people would not trust them doing the auditing. c. Because the consulting firm was shut down, the $27 million earned in consulting fees from Enron was most likely money the firms were trying to hide. This action is unethical by both Enron and Arthur Anderson. d. The sale of the consulting practice by Arthur Anderson did not allow the company to avoid conflicts of interest because they still were working both internal and external audits, so the external audits were checking the work of the internal audits. e. As a shareholder of a company, you would not be happy with a “nice guy” auditor. Instead, you’d want someone who would tell it like it is and not be afraid to shake things up and let his views be known. The “interested party” who would be happy with the description of David Duncan would be Enron, which was looking for a pushover. f. While most auditing firms are LLC or LLP, Arthur Anderson and David Duncan can be held liable to some degree for the obstruction of justice they

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