Andersen & Abbott A Tale of 2 Too Big to Fail Firms

Letter to Romans: Bush’s DOJ let Chicago’s mighty Arthur Andersen collapse after insisting on convicting it for shredding Enron docs; Trump’s DOJ gave suburban pharma giant Abbott Labs a civil deal after baby formula death probe. How the worm can turn …

… That is, from one GOP president to another & for a Democratic Sanctuary City like Chicago & its suburbs. People outside Illinois seldom realize the stakes involved in both scenarios; the Andersen disaster that cost 28K jobs in US & Abbott’s just resolved civil settlement that arguably saved 35K jobs out of 122K worldwide. With Andersen, the entire city expected DOJ would reach some settlement to save the “Too Big to Fail” accounting firm. But by the DOJ’s insisting on its felony obstruction of justice charge, the giant accounting firm was barred from its government work & lifeline. Ironically, the US Sup Ct would overturn the Andersen conviction, but too late to save it.

Fast forward to 2026 & WSJ’s exclusive titled, “The Baby Formula Produced a Pile of Evidence. Then the DOJ Dropped the Case” against Abbott. The paper relates, “Some prosecutors believed they had enough to [criminally] charge Abbott, but senior officials opted for civil settlement,” despite years investigating how the firm managed a baby formula facility that was suspected of causing infant deaths. The settlement terms have not been revealed. WSJ now says that decision “illustrates how the Justice Dept under President Trump [as long urged by corporate law firms & their clients] has moved away from strict approaches to corporate enforcement” & cited last year’s EO calling for “minimizing use of criminal sanctions where civil penalties” could be viewed as more appropriate. If Trump were POTUS in 2002?

Davd Soul