Because Enron had hedged against its own stock, it could never recover its losses while its share price was falling.

Andersen told Enron that it had no other choice but to change the way it was accounting for its special partnerships.

On 12 October, an Andersen lawyer contacted a senior partner in Houston to remind him that company policy was not to retain documents that were no longer needed.

At some point after this, staff in Andersen’s Houston office began shredding documents relating to Enron.

Around the same time, Enron's internal legal examination of Sherron Watkin's concerns concluded that the partnerships in question, Raptor and Condor, had been approved by Andersen.