Arthur Andersen Admits to Shredding Tons of Enron Documents

On January 9, 2002, Arthur Andersen, one of the “Big Five” accounting firms, publicly admitted that its employees had destroyed “several tons” of Enron-related documents and deleted nearly 30,000 emails and computer files during October and November 2001. CEO Joseph Berardino informed the Securities and Exchange Commission after discovering the massive document destruction campaign.

The shredding operation began on or about October 10, 2001, when Andersen foresaw imminent government investigations following Enron’s disclosure of massive accounting irregularities. Despite the SEC publicly announcing its investigation on October 22, the destruction continued until November 9—one day after the SEC formally served Andersen with a subpoena for Enron-related documents.

The document destruction was coordinated across multiple Andersen offices, with instructions sent to Andersen personnel in Portland, Oregon; Chicago, Illinois; and London, England, to join the shredding effort. In London, partners orchestrated a parallel campaign to destroy Enron documents within days of notice of the SEC inquiry.

This admission represented a watershed moment in corporate accountability. Arthur Andersen, founded in 1913 and built on a reputation for integrity, chose obstruction over transparency when facing scrutiny. The firm’s decision to destroy evidence would lead to its indictment in March 2002 and ultimately destroy 85,000 jobs worldwide—marking the last time a major corporation faced such devastating consequences for complicity in fraud.