Andersen conviction reversed

So the Supreme Court has reversed Andersen’s document destruction conviction – the conviction that put it out of business. I have criticized this conviction, e.g., here. 

Among many other things, in addition to destroying value and lives, it significantly reduced competition in the auditing industry and thereby impeded efforts to engage in the cleanup the pro-regulatory folks have thought is oh so necessary.  Now it turns out the whole thing was a legal as well as policy mistake.

More generally, this is yet another nail in the coffin of the misbegotten idea that corporate criminal liability is the way to better markets. For more on that, see my Corporate Crime archive.