Question: Did Arthur Andersen behave ethically? If not, then why not?
Arthur Andersen was Enron's auditor who must have known about Enron's unknown partnerships after he preformed an audit on Enron. It was reported that "the Andersen partner responsible for the Enron audit had instructed his staff to shred documents related to the audit". It is also known that Andersen was paid $52 million in 2000- $25 million for auditing and $27 million for consulting services.
These facts all contribute to the theory that Andersen knew about the partnerships and the true financial state of the company. The fact that he did not make this information public and expose what Enron was doing was ethically wrong. He should have immediately made this information public to the stockholders, employees, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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2 comments:
Lindsy Girard
I agree with what Karli-Mae is saying. Andersen didn't behave ethically because he didn't tell people what Enron was doing and he kept it a secret. I don't think it was fair to stockholders and others to not know what was going on.
I agree with Karli Mae as well. Arthur Andersen did not behave ethically at all, as he was providing consulting AND auditing services to Enron. Like Karli Mae stated, he then informed his workers to in fact shred the evidence. It would be impossible for him (both consultor and auditor) to be unaware of the financial standings of the company.
Although everyone may have a different definition of ethics, I think we can all agree that it has to do with your ability to understand and take responsibilities for what is right & wrong. In this case Arthur Andersen did NOT take responsibility for his actions and therefore behaved unethically.
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