News of Enron Corp.'s massive accounting fraud began trickling out in late 2001. As assistant controller for external reporting and compliance for The Hershey Co., Gerald Urich describes himself as a "curious" observer of the events. He was amazed that a company that had performed so strongly in 2000 could fall so hard, so fast. He wasn't, however, thinking that fallout from Enron would in anyway touch Hershey.

"It seemed to me to be an isolated incident, not one that had any particular implications for Hershey Co. or the rest of corporate America," says Urich, now Hershey's director of external reporting and the national chairman for the financial executives trade group FEI.

That all changed when Arthur Andersen LLP, Enron's auditor, was implicated in the Securities and Exchange Commission's case against the energy trader. Andersen had been Hershey's auditor as well since the company went public in 1927, and Urich and his colleagues were forced to contemplate the notion that the Enron scandal could engulf the fabled accounting firm.

In the weeks following Enron's December 2001 bankruptcy, SEC investigators were diving deep into the relationship between the two firms. The investigation culminated in March 2002, when Andersen was charged with obstruction of justice related to the destruction of Enron-related documents. 

As The Deal noted at the time:

About 500 Andersen employees rallied outside the Houston courthouse to protest the government's decision to prosecute the entire partnership for wrongdoing rather than singling out those responsible for the document destruction.

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Then-SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, now CEO of Washington-based business consulting firm Kalorama Partners, was in his office a little after 8 a.m. on Tues., Sept. 11, when an assistant dashed into his office to tell him that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Pitt shook off the first report as a freak disaster, but when a second plane struck it was "crystal clear" the country was under attack, he recalls.

The disaster occurred just a month into Pitt's term as SEC chairman. A renowned securities lawyer and former agency chief counsel, he would not have an easy ride at the SEC helm. Only a few weeks later, the Enron Corp. and other accounting scandals would break, dragging him and the agency into a controversy that would ultimately lead to his resignation. The accounting scandals would lead to legislation creating the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to supervise corporate auditing practices.

Despite his later travails, Pitt's efforts to bring New York's financial exchanges back to life after the terrorist attacks remain a solid accomplishment. He recalls the events in this installment of Decade of The Deal. See the video below or download it at iTunes.



And as we celebrate The Deal's 10-year anniversary, we'll feature monthly video interviews with personalities from each year of The Deal's history. Check out more episodes of Decade of The Deal below. - Bill McConnell

Also see:
Decade of The Deal: Fred Wilson on 1999's dot-com 'casino'
AOL & Time Warner's marriage: Decade of The Deal
Distressed Investing 2009 Video: Harvey Pitt on Madoff and reforming regulation
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