Andersen shafts yet another tribe

THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2002

The Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut is restating a recent financial statement after its new accountants discovered an error.

The restatement affects how interest was reported. Prior financial statements overstated capitalized interest and understated interest expense.

The tribe's former accountant was Arthur Andersen, the firm convicted of obstruction of justice for destroying documents related to the fall of Enron. The tribe fired Andersen in April.

Andersen was used heavily by the Department of Interior up until its conviction. During the 1990s, Andersen performed a "reconciliation" project of tribal trust accounts but the effort has been criticized by Congress and tribes as highly inadequate.

Andersen was recently paid to reconcile about 8,000 trust fund accounts for individual Indians. The Bush administration has presented this in court as an historical accounting for the funds.

But former Special Trustee Tom Slonaker refused to certify the project. He was ousted last month by Secretary Gale Norton and the White House.

Get the Story:
Mohegan Tribe plans to issue new financial statements (The New London Day 8/29)

Relevant Links:
Arthur Andersen - http://www.andersen.com

Related Stories:
Andersen reports cited in tribal trust cases (Tribal Law 08/12)
Bush plan ignored historical accounting doubts (Politics 07/16)
NCAI's Hall wants trust records protected (Tribal Law 06/19)
Tribes mired in trust fund resolution (Tribal Law 06/07)
Deadline nears for trust fund accounting plan (Politics 05/07)
Interior rebuffed on historical accounting (Politics 04/24)
GAO: Full reconciliation impossible (2/8)
White House orders Andersen review (1/25)