Episode Details

Once the gold standard of the accounting world, Arthur Andersen was a member of the "Big Five" and a firm built on the founder’s strict motto: "Think straight, talk straight". In this episode of pplpod, we explore how a company known for its integrity collapsed in one of the most spectacular corporate failures in American history.

We trace the firm’s timeline from its 1913 founding to the bitter internal civil war that led to the spin-off of Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). We then dive into the scandal that ultimately destroyed them: the firm’s fraudulent auditing of Enron and the frantic shredding of documents that led to a conviction for obstruction of justice. Finally, we discuss the bitter irony of the firm’s demise—how the Supreme Court overturned their conviction years later, long after the company was "defunct" and 28,000 employees had already lost their jobs.