Andersen chief denies illegality in Enron collapse

Arthur Andersen chief executive Mr Joseph Berardino has said he sees nothing illegal in Enron's collapse.

Arthur Andersen chief executive Mr Joseph Berardino has said he sees nothing illegal in Enron's collapse.

He has defended his company's conduct in auditing Enron's books and said he was not aware of any illegal actions before Enron's collapse.

Mr Berardino said in an interview on the NBC News programme Meet the Press: "To my knowledge, there was nothing that was found that was illegal. We're still investigating all of what happened at Enron. There have been restatements of the financial statements.

"We have acknowledged in one case we did make an error of judgment and that was corrected and, in another case, some information had been withheld that was extremely important to the decision on the accounting," he said.

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Mr Berardino denied Andersen was worried about losing Enron as a client because its fees for consulting service might reach $100 million. "We're a $10 billion organisation. This client was less than a fraction of 1 per cent of our fees".

Mr Berardino blamed Enron's collapse on a failed business model, not the accounting treatment. He also denied Andersen requested its employees to destroy documents related to Enron's audit.

PA