[Marxism] question re Arthur Andersen et al.

["acpollack2@xxxxxxxx" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxx>]

The stories on the Supreme Court's overturning of Arthur Andersen's conviction 
in its Enron dealings make it seem like the issue was a technical one, that is, 
the judge improperly ordered the jury to ignore whether Andersen employees 
purposely and/or consciously intended to obstruct the government's 
investigation. What the articles (and I've only read a couple) don't seem to 
address is why Andersen has yet to be convicted for its aid to Enron in 
committing fraud rather than just for covering it up. It makes me wonder 
whether the tighter standards for corporate reporting under Sarbanes-Oxley will 
now be gone after under constitutional grounds. But more importantly it says 
something about the almost total lack of consequences from Enron and related 
scandals, either in prosecution or regulatory changes. In fact lawyers for 
execs from Enron, WorldComm and other yet-to-be-tried perps are gloating over 
the Andersen verdict.

In any case what seems to be a much more significant story proving the lack of 
any substantive change since Enron is the resignation today of the SEC's 
Donaldson, a Republican who the press claims has been attacked repeatedly by 
SEC colleagues and corporations for being too tough on business! His 
resignation seems to put a coda to the entire post-Enron period.

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