Past accounting scandals motivated Andersen to destroy Enron audit records last year, according to US prosecutors.
Defence for Enron say the claim is being made in place of real proof of the accounting firm obstructing justice.
After the two sides gave marathon closing arguments in the five-week trial, Andersen's fate over the destruction of Enron audit records went to the jury.
US District Judge Melinda Harmon immediately sequestered the 12 jurors for the night, before their deliberations started.
The key question for jurors is whether Andersen acted with criminal intent to keep files away from a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) inquiry into Enron accounting.
In the US Justice Department's closing, assistant US Attorney Sam Buell said Andersen's campaign to impede the SEC's Enron inquiry started with an October 12th e-mail from Andersen lawyer Ms Nancy Temple.
"This was not like this was some employee in some remote corner of their business off on a frolic," Mr Buell said. "Arthur Andersen's legal department was the driving force behind this and they were in the best position to know the law and the risks to Andersen."
In the e-mail, Ms Temple reminds the Houston office of the firm's record-keeping policy. Prosecutors say it was an instruction to destroy incriminating files. Andersen argues it was merely a sound risk management practice that requires destroying extraneous records and maintaining important ones.
Mr Buell said Ms Temple and others were concerned about violating sanctions stemming from Andersen's involvement in an accounting scandal with trash hauler Waste Management, and Sunbeam Corporation.
"The point is, Andersen knew the drill. They knew the stakes with the SEC," he said. "They knew that Enron was deja vuall over again with Waste Management and Sunbeam."
Lead defence attorney Mr Rusty Hardin said he was "sick and tired" of hearing about those scandals, which he said were irrelevant civil cases that had nothing to do with Enron. It was just "mud" that prosecutors "threw on the wall" in palce of real proof.
"There is not one single piece of evidence that these people were thinking about Waste Management and Sunbeam," Mr Hardin said.
"When he mentions that stuff again, I want you to say to yourself 'Watch out, Andrew Weissmann, I'm on to you,' Mr Hardin said, referring to the lead prosecutor.
Enron collapsed into the largest-ever US bankruptcy on December 2nd amid questions about its accounting of off-balance-sheet partnerships that hid about $1 billion in losses. The collapse dragged Andersen down, causing it to lose hundreds of clients and sell off many profitable units.