ACC 4291Integrated Case StudySem 2, 2014/15

Androids Under Attack
By Ali Shah Hashim
David Lawrence, 43 years of age, joined the auditing firm of Androids 20 years ago and earned a salary of USD 700,000 per annum. He was the Androids’ partner in charge of auditing Enronaa’s accounts since 1987 – his job was to check Enronaa’s accounts and to make sure that they fairly represent the state of the business. Androids had been Enronaa’s auditor for the past 16 years.
On the morning of October 23, David and his auditing team listened in on a call between stock analysts and Enronaa’s executives, who were trying to explain the company’s financial free fall. There were too many unanswered questions. After lunch, David called the entire Enronaa team together in Conference Room 37C1. His heart beat faster as he thought about the net that was closing in on Androids. As his eyes wandered around the room, on one of the conference room walls was an imposing picture of Arthur Androids. David was particularly proud of the long and distinguished history of the firm. His mind wandered as if to witness how in 1913, Arthur and Clarence, both from the audit firm of Price, bought out a small audit firm in Illinois to form Arthur, Clarence & Co., which became Androids & Co. in 1918. Androids, who headed the firm until his death in 1945, was a zealous supporter of high standards in the accounting industry. A stickler for honesty, he argued that accountants’ responsibility was to investors, not their clients’ management. During the early years, it was reputed that Androids was approached by an executive from a local rail utility to sign off on accounts containing flawed accounting, or else face the loss of a major client. Androids refused in no uncertain terms, replying that he would not sign the accounts “for all the money in America”. Leonardo Sparky, who succeeded Androids at the