The indictment, obtained last week from a grand jury in Texas, came after Andersen let pass a 9 a.m. EST Thursday deadline to plead guilty to charges stemming from its admitted destruction of documents.

"Last year, in Texas, Chicago, Portland and London, Andersen knowingly persuaded ... employees to withhold records from criminal proceedings and alter, destroy and mutilate objects (shredding) with intent to impair the official investigation," the indictment said.

The indictment further alleges that Andersen employees "were instructed by Andersen partners and others to destroy immediately documentation relating to Enron and told to work overtime if necessary to accomplish the destruction." 

Andersen quickly responded to the one-count indictment, calling it "without precedent and an extraordinary abuse of prosecutorial discretion."

The accounting firm admitted to wrongdoing in the Houston office, but said an internal investigation revealed that "the expedited effort to destroy documents was confined to a relatively few partners and employees of the firm and was almost entirely limited to the Houston office."

Andersen itself turned over evidence of document shredding to the Justice Department, the firm stated.

"The Department’s action ignores the fact that Andersen discovered these activities and brought them to the attention of the Department of Justice and has cooperated fully with the investigation," said Andersen.

The maximum fine for the charges is $500,000, a small sum for the large company. However, with clients jumping ship almost daily, Andersen admitted an indictment could be its "death penalty."

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