Right to pryvacy.

• Position: Interview with Frank Zaveral, head of dissolved accountancy firm Zaveral Boosalis Raisch - Interview

Frank Zaveral spent years defending the state's CPA-client confidentiality law. Now Colorado may lose that protection.

Frank Zaveral is starting the sixth year of the case that changed his life, Colorado State Board of Accountancy v. Zaveral Boosalis Raisch, a case that went all the way to the state Supreme Court before Zaveral's CPA firm won it.

Since the board first demanded ZBR client files in early 1994, Zaveral Boosalis Raisch has effectively dissolved and Zaveral has retired. But he continues to keep close tabs on the issue of CPA-client confidentiality, which won him recognition as one of Accounting Today magazine's "100 Most Influential People" in the Accounting Hall of Fame.

The heart of the Board v. ZBR decision was the court's support of a Colorado statute carving out accountant-client privilege. The heart of the issue today, Zaveral told ColoradoBiz, is that the accountancy board and the Colorado Society of CPAs have readied a bill taking away confidentiality. "What we're going to give up is our right to privacy," Zaveral said simply.

Cbiz: A poison pen letter started this case more than five years ago, didn't it?

FZ: The anonymous letter was sent around in January 1994, to all the local newspapers, to the television stations and a couple of other media in addition to (our) accounting firm and the State Board of Accountancy. It was sent to investors in two casinos in Central City, which the letter accused of all kinds of terrible things - fraud and incompetence and mismanagement - you name it. We spent a few bucks trying to figure out who wrote it, but never did.

Anyway, the media threw it in the trash can. They get that stuff every day. We gave copies to (area) district attorneys. They laughed at it. But the State Board of Accountancy looked at it, and they said, 'Aha, here's a reason to launch an investigation.'

Cbiz: Which two casinos?

FZ: There was an investigation and a lawsuit; it was public. I might as well tell you. There were two entities, the liability companies for the Silver Slipper and Annie Oakley's. We had done their tax returns and audited financial statements for about a year.

Cbiz: Were there any grounds for these allegations?

FZ: They were groundless.

Cbiz: OK. Someone shot a lot of arrows into the air and one of them landed on you.

FZ: That's right. Kind of like a lottery.

Cbiz: I'm sure you weren't laughing at the time. When did the investigation begin?

FZ: The investigation began in February and took the...