After the outbreak of Enron, why did Andersen destroy a large number of Enron electronic documents and audits?

The financial statements of listed companies should be reported after auditing, and finally they should be investigated by accounting firms.

Andersen began auditing Enron from 1985, which lasted for 16 years. In addition to simple auditing, Andersen also provides internal auditing and consulting services. In the mid-1990s, Andersen signed a supplementary agreement with Enron, and Andersen undertook the external audit of Enron.

Not only that, Enron's consulting business is also entirely in the charge of Andersen. In 200 1 year, more than half of the $52 million paid by Enron was used to pay for consulting services.

During the period from 1997 to 200 1, Enron fabricated a profit of 586 million dollars and hid hundreds of millions of dollars in debts. According to the investigation of American regulatory authorities, more than 0/00 employees of Enron/KLOC are from Andersen, including senior staff such as chief accountant and chief financial officer, and half of the directors on the board of directors have direct or indirect contact with Andersen.

Event development:

First of all, Enron's management has been questioned, including the board of directors, the board of supervisors and the company's senior management. The charges they face include dereliction of duty, making false accounts, misleading investors and seeking personal gain.

Then, the partnership companies that have been hidden behind Enron began to surface. After investigation, most of these partnership companies are controlled by Enron's top management, and Enron's huge foreign loans are often included in these companies, not on Enron's balance sheet.

In this way, Enron's huge debt of $654.38+03 billion will not be known to investors. What makes investors even more angry is that it is obvious that Enron executives are very familiar with the problems in the company's operation, but they have turned a blind eye for a long time and even deliberately concealed them.