Ann McEachron is anassistantVice President at a large public financial consulting firm. Her supervisor - Mr. Thomas who is a Sr.Vice President has asked her to destroy boxes of documents from an internal audit the firm conducted 2 years ago. The firm generally keeps records for 7 years, because of potential tax liability and issues, but it has destroyed documents earlier in cases in which the amount of paperwork becomes overwhelming. Ann wonders about the request, but complies with her supervisor's order.

The company that was the subject of the audit is currently under criminal investigation and the partner in the accounting firm who conducted the audit is aware of that investigation but did not render any advice about the document destruction when asked by Mr.Thomas.

It is a federal crime to destroy documents that are involved in or could potentially be involved in either a civil or criminal investigation. Evaluate the criminal liability of Ann, her supervisor and the accounting partner for the destruction of the documents. Would your answer be different if Ann had read in the newspaper about the criminal investigation of the company? Also since it is a public company does the Sarbanes - Oxley Act apply and what types of possible penalties/civl liability could each individual in this case be subject to if and when an indictment occurs?