Do you agree with the penalty levied against Arthur Andersen's ex-executives in the Sunbeam accounting scandal? Surely management should have been blamed a 100%?

Sunbeam Corporation Restates Financial Results Sunbeam Corporation restated its financial results for 1996, 1997, and the first quarter of 1998 based on an extensive audit by its audit committee and two public accounting firms. The special audit found that the previously issued financial statements overstated the loss for 1996, overstated profits for 1997, and understated the loss for the first quarter of 1998. Sunbeam reported that, for certain periods, revenue was incorrectly recognized in the wrong period, partly because of the company's "bill and hold" practice of billing customers in the current period for products that were delivered in a later period. The company also booked a significant amount of sales that were made to customers under such liberal terms that they did not constitute valid sales at all, but rather appeared to be consignments or guaranteed sales. In 1997 revenue was restated from $1,186 million to $1,073 million, and earnings were reduced from $123.1 million to $52.3 million. The reporting of these financial irregularities led to the resignation of Sunbeam's CEO, Al Dunlap. In 2001, the SEC sued five ex-executives of Sunbeam and Arthur Andersen. Andersen agreed to pay $110 million to settle an accounting-fraud lawsuit over its audit work for Sunbeam