Deloitte's audit team had been auditing Adelphia and Rigas for numerous years. The 2000 audit remained largely unchanged from prior years. The team consisted of about twenty staff accountants and tax professionals, divided into subgroups that were supervised by ten Deloitte managers and headed by senior manager William Caswell, who reported directly to Dearlove.
Several of the Deloitte managers had significant prior experience auditing and reviewing Adelphia's annual and quarterly reports: Caswell had spent six years working on Adelphia engagements; Ivan Hofmann and Robert Fitzgerald, both audit managers, had each spent five years. In addition, Michael Lindsey served as the concurring partner as he had on Adelphia audits since 1996, and Stephen Biegel was assigned as risk review partner after serving in that capacity for the 1999 Adelphia audit. Dearlove had once met Caswell at a firm meeting but did not otherwise know any members of the Adelphia audit team when he assumed his role as engagement partner.
Deloitte devoted an estimated 21,000 hours to the audit of Adelphia's 2000 financial statements and related accounting advisory activities; Dearlove himself spent over 700 hours. Dearlove spent a total of ten to fifteen days on-site in Coudersport with the audit team. Dearlove participated in discussions with the team, reviewed workpapers and underlying Adelphia documents when the team brought them to his attention, and "worked through the issues" with his staff in what Dearlove characterized as a "consultative process." At the end of the audit, Dearlove looked at certain workpapers and drew conclusions as to whether the team completed its review. Dearlove testified that he also consulted Deloitte's national office on a number of accounting issues during the course of the audit, mostly involving revenue recognition.
On March 29, 2001, Deloitte issued its