Sacked Enron auditor refuses to testify

Andersen's lead auditor at Enron and his ex-boss were subpoenaed

The chief auditor of bankrupt energy giant Enron has refused to testify to a US Congressional committee on Thursday, his lawyer said.

David Duncan is asking the committee for immunity from prosecution before agreeing to appear and, without it, he will invoke his constiutional right not to incriminate himself.

US energy giant Enron's downfall last autumn was the biggest corporate bankruptcy in American history.

The bankruptcy has triggered two criminal investigations - by the US Justice Department and the stock market regulator - and half a dozen Congressional inquiries.

Constitutional right

Mr Duncan has been sacked by audit firm Arthur Andersen, which admitted the team he led shredded documents relating to Enron.

Also declining to appear before the committee hearing on Thursday is Mr Duncan's former boss, Andersen chief executive Joseph Berardino.

Mr Berardino offered late on Wednesday to send a replacement witness, a move almost guaranteed to anger committee members.

He nominated Dorsey Baskin, "a top technical expert in accounting standards," according to Andersen spokesman Patrick Dorton.

Enron shareholders' lawyers say the firm shredded too

Without immunity, Mr Duncan "will rely on his constitutional right not to testify," his attorney Robert Giuffra said in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The letter said it would be "premature" to require Mr Duncan to testify on Thursday because he had had insufficent time to prepare.

Mr Duncan was subpoenaed to appear by the committee on Tuesday and refusal to do so could earn him a short prison sentence for being in contempt of Congress.

The same is equally true of Andersen's chief executive.

Committee chair Billy Tauzin, to whom the letter was sent, is reportedly irritated by television interviews given by Andersen executives, such as Mr Berardino, who are reluctant to appear before the committee.

Shredding centre stage

The question focusing the attention of politicians, regulators and commentators is how much the audit firm's Chicago head office knew about the destruction of documents at it Houston branch, and when.

The investigation into document shredding has expanded to include Enron itself.

On Tuesday, investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) searched Enron's headquarter's in Houston after a former executive alleged that documents had been destroyed there despite a court order.