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Pastimes : Harvey Pitt - Man or Mouse? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DrGrabow who wrote (4)	1/19/2002 7:47:01 AM
From: Giordano Bruno	Respond to of 5

January 19, 2002 Auditing Firms Gaining Muscle in Washington ...The profession's growing influence is perhaps most apparent at the S.E.C. Last month, President Bush said he would nominate partners from two of the Big Five accounting firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, to two vacancies on the five-member commission. Joel Seligman, who wrote a history of the S.E.C., said he could not recall a partner at a leading accounting firm ever being a commissioner. Moreover, the commission's current chairman, Harvey L. Pitt, a securities lawyer, once represented all five major accounting firms as well as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants before he took over at the S.E.C. last summer... ...For all the talk about Enron's influence, by some measures the accounting industry has even stronger ties to government. Of the 20 largest contributors to President Bush's 2000 campaign, three accounting firms — including Andersen — gave more money than Enron. All Big Five accounting firms were among the campaign's top 20 contributors. Moreover, 94 current senators and more than half the current members of the House have received some campaign donations from Andersen since 1989, according to a study for the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that studies the influence of money in politics. In recent years, the accounting firms have set up Washington operations to represent their interests and those of their clients. They have retained batteries of former government and Congressional aides. And they have been among the largest political fund-raisers and donors. During the last presidential election, Andersen was the fifth-largest contributor to Mr. Bush's campaign, giving more than $145,000 through its employees and political action committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The fourth-largest was Ernst & Young, which gave more than $179,000; PricewaterhouseCoopers was eighth, contributing more than $127,000. Enron, by contrast, gave about $113,800. Andersen also organized a big Bush campaign fund-raiser. The largest Congressional recipient of Andersen donations has been Representative Billy Tauzin, the Louisiana Republican who heads the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the 10 Congressional committees examining Enron's collapse. He has received $57,000 from Andersen in the last decade. nytimes.com