Argument of Chief Justice Rehnquist
Mr. Rehnquist: I have the opinion of the Court to announce in Arthur Andersen versus the United States.
As Enron Corporation's financial difficulties became public in 2001, petitioner Arthur Andersen, Enron's auditor, instructed its employees to destroy documents pursuant to a document retention policy.
A jury found that this made Andersen criminally liable as a corrupt persuader under Section 1512(b) of Title 18, and the Section is dealing with Obstruction of Justice.
The Court of Appeals to the Fifth Circuit affirmed.
We granted certiorari and we hold that the phrase "knowingly corruptly persuades" in 1512(b) requires a consciousness of wrongdoing and that one cannot knowingly corruptly persuade another to shred documents unless one foresees a particular official proceeding in which those documents might be material.
The jury instructions here failed to correctly convey these statutory elements.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is therefore reversed.
The opinion of the Court is unanimous.
