Andersen audit losses soar to 451 for year 20 percent of public clients

CHICAGO - The losses of fast-failing Arthur Andersen LLP soared Thursday to 451 public companies this year with the defections of Atlanta-based Mirant Corporation, UnitedHealth Group and more than a dozen others. <br> <br> Industry monitoring service Auditor-Trak said the indicted accounting firm has lost 80 publicly traded companies as clients this week alone, based on company announcements and filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. <br> <br> Andersen handled the books for 2,311 public companies last year, along with reportedly about 32,000 private, mostly smaller ones, for a total of $3.9 billion in accounting revenue. <br> <br> About a quarter of that revenue is gone, with many more losses expected as Andersen&#39;s obstruction of justice trial continues in Houston. <br> <br> Atlanta-based Mirant, the giant energy trader spun off by Southern Company last year, decided to dismiss Andersen after saying March 25 it would retain it. It named KPMG LLP as its auditor, citing recent developments with Andersen for the switch. <br> <br> Mirant and Minneapolis-based UnitedHealth were among the biggest remaining clients at Andersen. Others to dump the firm today included Liz Claiborne, Friendly Ice Cream, Deltek Systems and Digex.