Enron Corp.’s former outside accountant Arthur Andersen and the accounting firm’s law firm are apparently close to completing an internal review into when and how its employees destroyed documents relating to the bankrupt company’s business practices. Details of the report by Davis Polk & Wardwell could be released this week, but Andersen also indicated that its investigation is ongoing.

Andersen CEO Joseph Berardino said in mid-January that the company’s internal review was in its “final stages” and would be publicly disclosed when completed. He also promised that Andersen would be “very forthcoming.”

Past statements by Chicago-based Andersen have placed the blame squarely on its Houston office, which was headed by former employee and chief Enron auditor David Duncan. Duncan, who was fired in January, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions when called before a House subcommittee in January.

Duncan’s legal representatives, who insist their client has done nothing wrong, has said that the Enron document shredding began after Nancy Temple, an Andersen attorney in Chicago, sent e-mails to the Houston office with an attachment of the company’s document retention policy. The policy indicates that only documents required for audits should be kept and all other documents should be destroyed. The policy also indicates, however, that no documents should be destroyed if the Securities and Exchange Commission launches an investigation, which it did in mid-October. Temple’s memo was sent to the Houston office Nov. 9, according to documents.

Meanwhile, Enron’s interim CEO Stephen Cooper, brought in to facilitate restructuring, told the Los Angeles Times that the bankrupt company is planning a “broad legal assault” against individuals who forced the company into bankruptcy. Cooper said the legal actions would be “extensive and rapid,” but he did not divulge details or names.

He said, “Enron may have causes of action against institutions and individuals” that could result in a “meaningful asset for the estate….sooner as opposed to later.” Cooper said the company has not asked any former employees to repay money they earned from dubious partnership transactions. Former CFO Andrew Fastow reportedly made about $30 million on some off-balance sheet transactions and former Enron Global Finance executive Michael Kopper, who worked for Fastow, made about $10 million. Others also made more than $1 million in transactions handled by Fastow, according to reports.

“I think the recovery vehicle in the main will be litigation,” Cooper told the Times. In the meantime, he said he and his team are “sorting out issues” related to the company’s financial statements and the value of its trading book, the existing contracts that have accumulated that were not included in the sale of the energy trading operation to UBS Warburg Energy.

By the second quarter, Cooper said he expects to present a “fairly on-point direction” to reorganize Enron and present it to the two creditors’ committees. A “new” Enron is expected to be up and running within a year, he noted. “We’re not going to wallow and linger in Chapter 11 for a day longer than we have to.”

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