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Letters from alumni about Enron and Andersen


What follows is a letter sent to numerous people and organizations, including President Tilghman and PAW.

March 23, 2002

As time is of the essence, I write directly to you and copy a select group of Princetonians, HBS faculty & friends to bring a national tragedy to your attention and to solicit your help.

Specifically I ask, that after you review the correspondence which follows this note, you help me find a means to share Andersen's side of the story with the greater Princeton University and Harvard Business School communities: alumni, students, faculty, and others, as you deem appropriate.

At stake, given the Department of Justice decision to criminally indict Arthur Andersen LLP - a firm where I work as a partner, is not only the future of the firm itself, the destruction of its reputation and the unwarranted dislocation/job loss and resultant hardship for our 28,000 innocent American employees and our more than 87,000 workers worldwide; but from a macro perspective, the impact of this capricious action by the DOJ on the U.S. economic system, the capital markets, and on the accounting industry.

Shirley, helping preserve our country's values of fairness and due-process, and the very concept of "innocent until found guilty" would seem to me to be part of Princeton University's mandate as encompassed by its watchwords "Princeton in the nation's service".

I respectfully ask you to add your voice and the voice of your great institution to our grassroots effort which is gaining national momentum. Please help us draw attention to this travesty of justice and help us work to ensure this type of thing never happens in our great country again. Help us give back dignity to our people at Andersen as they begin to reconstruct their lives. Help us restore some of the reputation which Arthur Andersen rightfully deserves.

Jack K. Gelman ’67
Harvard Business School - MBA ’75
Westport, Conn.
Gelman67@starband.net

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February 11, 2002

Pick ’em: Terrorists vs. Enron Top Brass

By Rich Herschlag '84

Terrorists

Enron Top Brass

Destroyed thousands of lives

Destroyed thousand of lives

Will cost the US over 100 billion

Will cost the US over 100 billion

Hijacked planes

Hijacked seventh largest US corporation

September 11

Chapter 11

Hide in caves

Hide in Vermont, Houston, and Boca Raton

Long beards

Short memories

Harbored by Taliban

Harbored by Arthur Andersen

Recruited John Walker Lindh

Recruited George Walker Bush

Suicide bombers

One suicide and counting

Interrogated by CIA

Interrogated by Katie Couric

Oil money

Oil money

Trained by US Special Forces

Wharton

911

401K

Flying lessons

Twelve handicap

Offshore accounts

Off-the-books partnerships

Sacrificed other Muslims

Sacrificed Enron employees

Shielded by Pakistani sympathizers

Shielded by Dick Cheney

Left behind blueprints for further attacks

Shredded audit documents

Geneva Convention

Taking the Fifth

Bin Laden may be dead

Ken Lay tanned, rested, and ready

 

Richard Herschlag ’84
Easton, Pa.

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February 3, 2002

Remember your recent laudatory article about Congressman Jim Leach? Here's what historian Sean Wilenz has to say, from a slightly longer perspective: "Fourth, consider the energy-derivative schemes — obscure financial arrangements so new that they escaped regulation completely. In 1997, Clinton administration officials proposed more-exacting disclosure of energy derivatives. But again, that would have been regulation; and so Enron, with the help of congressional Republicans led by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jim Leach of Iowa, put a stop to the reformist nonsense." (Sean Wilentz, "A Scandal for Our Time," American Prospect, v.13, n.4, February 25, 2002)

Need I say more?

Burr Loomis '61
Long Beach, Mo.

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