UIC Law Review Volume 36 Issue 1 Article 2 Fall 2002 Is Silence Golden When It Comes to Auditing?, 36 J. Marshall L. Rev. 57 (2002) Darin Bartholomew Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.uic.edu/lawreview Part of the Accounting Law Commons, Antitrust and Trade Regulation Commons, Banking and Finance Law Commons, Business Organizations Law Commons, Consumer Protection Law Commons, and the Legislation Commons Recommended Citation Darin Bartholomew, Is Silence Golden When It Comes to Auditing?, 36 J. Marshall L. Rev. 57 (2002) https://repository.law.uic.edu/lawreview/vol36/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UIC Law Open Access Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in UIC Law Review by an authorized administrator of UIC Law Open Access Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. IS SILENCE GOLDEN WHEN IT COMES TO AUDITING? DARIN BARTHOLOMEW* INTRODUCTION Enron Corporation, an energy trading company, is embroiled in one of the largest bankruptcy filings in United States history.1 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating Enron in October of 2001. Arthur Andersen, one of the big-five accounting firms, was convicted for obstructing a federal investigation because of Andersen's destruction of documents related to its public audit of Enron.3 Arthur Andersen has since astronomically reduced its workforce and has arranged for the sales of segments of its accounting practice to other accounting firms.4 Needless to say, it is questionable whether * Darin E. Bartholomew is a Senior Attorney with Deere & Company, currently handling intellectual property licensing and transactional matters.