Why did the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Arthur Andersen’s obstruction-of-justice conviction?

The United States Supreme Court unanimously overturned the obstruction-of-justice conviction against Arthur Andersen in 2005 because the original trial involved faulty jury instructions.1

While the firm was initially found guilty in 2002 for shredding documents related to the Enron scandal, the Supreme Court determined that the instructions given to the jury were flawed, leading to the reversal of the verdict. By the time this decision was reached, the firm had already lost its license to engage in public accounting and had effectively ceased to exist, leaving only a small number of employees to manage its remaining legal affairs.12