A year ago Scott Hunter would not have imagined he would be overseeing the wind up of the accounting firm he had presided over since the mid-1980s.

But as the managing partner of Arthur Andersen Bermuda, Mr. Hunter found himself unwittingly caught up in an unexpected turn of events when the US Arthur Andersen was rocked by scandal after indictment by the US Department of Justice as auditor of now failed energy giant Enron.

Although each Andersen firm across the globe was an autonomous company, the net result of the controversy surrounding the American arm of Andersen was to be the downfall of the global network of Andersen firms.

Andersen Worldwide, a Swiss Societ? Cooperative was the coordinating entity for its autonomous member firms.

And under the Andersen brand, the firms agreed to cooperate in the market with a common brand, philosophy, technologies and practice methods. But each firm had its own governance, capital structure and leadership, according to the Andersen Worldwide Web site.

Now most of the firms have closed down - as in the case of the Bermuda firm - or have been taken over by rival accounting firms. In total, the events affected thousands of people as Andersen Worldwide collectively employed some 85,000 people.

In Bermuda, Mr. Hunter said 35 professional and support staff had been affected.

But he added that all but one Bermudian staff member had already secured other employment. Nonetheless Mr. Hunter said the events showed how innocent people could be affected by what happened thousands of miles away.

The US firm of Arthur Andersen was convicted in June of obstruction of justice for shredding and doctoring documents related to its Enron audits. Now Mr. Hunter at 50 years old is at a crossroads and he told he hasn't yet made up his mind on what he'll be doing next. He'll be kept busy for quite a while however with the process of managing the wind-up of the Andersen entities in Bermuda.

"The practice is going to take a lot of effort to wind up as you have to take care of your people, your clients, your financial responsibilities ...," Mr. Hunter said.

He continued: "Sometimes you make decisions because you are put in a particular situation. When this was thrown on me, I had to look at what was the right thing to do."

But Mr. Hunter added: "I had to close the practice, we were starting to lose some of our clients and our ability to continue to provide career opportunities to our people and serve clients at the level we would want was significantly under threat.

"I really did not have a choice - once the US firm got indicted then our global clients were honour bound to do what was in the best interest of their stakeholders, their shareholders. I respected them for that."

But Mr. Hunter had only praise for the support he and the company received from the local community: "Quite frankly, the support we received throughout this process has been super - from the profession, the other large public accounting firms, clients, our landlord, suppliers, the regulators and the community at large."

For a time it appeared that the firm might integrate some of its professional staff and clients with the Bermuda office of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), but in the end a formal plan did not materialise.

Mr. Hunter said however that the majority of the firm's professional staff joined PWC, although former colleagues could now be found working at all of the firms.