The criminal conviction of Chicago-based Andersen will further hurt the city's economy and its place in the world of financial reporting.

But business and government leaders say Chicago already has felt most of the potential economic, psychological and philanthropic fallout because of Andersen's gradual collapse following its March indictment.

Still, some local officials' anger against the Justice Department flashed anew upon word of the verdict Saturday.

"They have dismantled one of the largest companies in Chicago even before this final verdict came down today," said Jerry Roper, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.

Roper said Andersen was among the city's 25 largest employers, and its elimination will mean a loss of "hundreds of millions of dollars" a year for the area's economy, including for hotels, airlines and restaurants. Before its indictment, Andersen employed a combined 5,300 at its Loop headquarters and its St. Charles training center.

"We are going to recover some of it, but it is going to take several years during a down economy," Roper said.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley said it wasn't fair to punish all of the company's employees for the actions of a few.

"I hope they go after and indict these other companies in the future with the same speed and passion as they did with Andersen," the mayor said, referring to federal prosecutors. "You can't blame 99.9 percent of the people for the mistakes of 1 percent of the people."

Others echoed the sentiment.

"I don't believe justice is served when thousands of innocent people have to pay the price of a few guilty," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

Most of Andersen's partners and employees are expected to land jobs elsewhere, including at other big accounting firms.

"It's definitely a blow to Chicago. It's a blow to the accounting profession, and it's a blow to the financial-services industry," said Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Capital Management Inc., a Chicago mutual funds and investments firm. "It's a bad situation, and I cannot imagine how the company survives. That's just a travesty."

She said some individuals at the firm acted inappropriately.

"But I still cannot believe that an entire firm with tens of thousands of employees ultimately should pay for that," she said.

Accounting experts found it hard to imagine how Andersen could overcome the conviction.

"This will mean that Andersen won't survive," said Roman Weil, an accounting professor at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. "If they had been found not guilty, then they could have emerged with their name intact and their right to practice."

Weil said Chicago will likely lose its role as a major player in the accounting world.

"The people who are the brains still exist and will be going elsewhere," he said.

Samuel Skinner, a former U.S. secretary of transportation and now chief executive of Chicago-based U.S. Freightways Corp., called the verdict "almost anti-climactic." He said the way the case was handled was not fair to the vast majority of Andersen workers. "This involves an office in Houston, and it doesn't involve the entire Andersen firm," he said.

Andersen's conviction is also bad news for local non-profit groups, which had benefited from the firm's philanthropy.

"They are already feeling the effects of the economy right now, and this will not help them," said Laura Svendsen, a spokeswoman for the Donors Forum of Chicago.

Andersen leases nearly 1 million square feet of office space downtown and owns a sprawl-ing conference center and training facility along the Fox River in St. Charles.

The conference center space could be hard to fill, placing at risk the $250,000 in hotel taxes and $1.3 million in property taxes that Andersen pays annually to St. Charles.

"If it is sold, we don't want it sold to something that would take it off the tax rolls," Mayor Susan Klinkhamer said.