On May 31, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned the criminal conviction of Arthur Andersen LLP for witness tampering when senior company officials simply requested that its employees comply with Andersen’s lawful document retention policy. Documents were shredded that were later sought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Enron investigation. The Court held that contrary to the position of the Justice Department, the jury instructions failed to require a showing that Arthur Andersen had criminal intent to violate the law. Andersen was convicted by a jury based on instructions that required conviction even if Andersen honestly and sincerely believed that following the company’s document retention policy was lawful.