It is not clear if Andersen can arrange a deal with Deloitte & Touche, or with any of the three other large accounting firms.
The Senate Banking Committee also plans to hold a hearing next week to examine the foreclosure review and other missteps at consultants like Promontory Financial and Deloitte & Touche, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
But the three others -- KPMG, Arthur Andersen and Deloitte & Touche, along with the leadership of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants -- sought Congressional legislation to block the move and for months refused S.E.C. entreaties to negotiate.
For example, said Thomas J. Jackson, a partner in the Chicago office of Deloitte & Touche, executives with stock options are considering quicker exercise -- resulting in recognition of ordinary income -- to get the clock started so future sales of appreciated shares will be taxed at the lower gains rates.
"As a trader, you're given money to gamble with," Puneet Mathur, a director from Deloitte & Touche who assists with risk management, explained.
At MCI, the telecommunications company in bankruptcy proceedings, the audit committee brought in Deloitte & Touche to help with internal controls.
Only a day earlier, Deloitte & Touche was hit with an $81 million verdict in a shareholder class-action lawsuit that had accused it of malpractice in the audit of Koger Properties, which had collapsed a year earlier.
NEW YORK TIMES Deloitte Sued for $7.6 Billion in Florida | Deloitte & Touche was hit with two lawsuits on Monday seeking a total of $7.6 billion in damages over the accounting company's alleged failure to uncover fraud at a mortgage company, Taylor, Bean & Whitaker.
Michael J. Fradette (handicap index 6.5), a consultant with Deloitte & Touche who has played golf with about three dozen chief executives through the years, has his own theories.
Previously it had settled with Deloitte & Touche and Dianthus for $149.0 million, and with Italian creditor Banca Monte Dei Paschi Di Siena for $117.9 million.
