Andersen’s Other Crime

If, come trial in May, Arthur Andersen is acquitted of the criminal charges it faces for shredding crucial documents in the Enron scandal, the once-mighty accounting firm already has pronounced itself guilty of cynicism in the first degree. If there is a public-relations equivalent to cooking the books, Arthur Andersen has found it.

It is bad enough that hundreds of rank-and-file Andersen employees, their careers already damaged by bad executive decisions, have been put on the streets outside the Houston federal courthouse where the trial will be held and forced to wear hideous orange and black T-shirts, each declaring “I am Arthur Andersen.” Such demonstrations and such T-shirts do not materialize spontaneously; they are instead evidence of a corporate policy that apparently demands self-humiliation by workers.

Worse is the firm’s media campaign. Full-page ads – two full pages, actually – with “Injustice for all” declared in thick black letters the height of a club sandwich. Below, the terse non-sentences so popular in the ad game these days: “One indictment. 28,000 Andersen U.S. men and women. 5,200 retirees. 85,000 family members.” Then, some actual sentences: “All put at risk. It’s simply unjust.”

All this over a background of microscopic letters – the names of thousands of Andersen employees whose lives the company says are being ruined by this prosecution. It is reminiscent of the Vietnam Memorial, of the many simple and touching tributes to the victims of Sept. 11. It is, in that context, tasteless beyond comprehension.

What the Andersen campaign does not explain, of course, is that the 118,200 employees, retirees and family members is grieves for would not be in such peril were it not for the actions of the company itself. Only in the world of white-collar crime would the alleged perpetrator seek refuge behind a wall of its victims.

What is particularly galling about this campaign is that Andersen already has received considerable generosity from the courts. The decision this week to put the trial on a fast track – jury selection is set for May 6 – is unprecedented in cases this complex. It was done solely for the benefit of the company, which argued the accelerated schedule was its only hope of survival. The presiding judge, Melinda Harmon, made it clear the well-being of Andersen employees trumped the all other objections.

So now, the Justice Department must build a case in record time against a defendant that has been able to build a defense for its unscrupulous practices at its leisure. Legal experts all agree that the timetable clearly works to Andersen’s advantage. The American public, which will not have to bear Andersen’s nauseating spin as long as it would have otherwise, gains as well.