Andersen Removed Unhappy Advisor

Carl Bass was apparently taken off the Enron account after he expressed concern about the company accounting procedures. He is believed to have objected to the accounting treatment of Enron's internet video partnership with Blockbuster and the company's attempts to avoid reporting investment losses which would have wiped out almost all of Enron's reported profit.

US federal prosecutors are particularly interested in Mr Bass's views as the Justice Department indictment against Andersen states that that firm's audit team 'directly contravened the accounting methodology approved by Andersen's own specialists working in its professional standards group.'