ENRON SCANDAL

INDEX

ENRON CORPORATION WHAT WAS THE SCHEME? PARTIES INVOLVED CONSEQUENCES OF ENRON SCANDAL

ENRON CORPORATION

Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas.

Enron employed approximately 20,000 staff and was one of the world's major electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper company.

It claimed revenues of nearly $111 billion during 2000. Fortune named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years.

WHAT WAS THE SCHEME?

The mark-to-market practice led to schemes that were designed to hide the losses and make the company appear to be more profitable than it really was.

Andrew Fastow, a rising star who was promoted to CFO in 1998 and Jeffrey Skilling the former CEO and architect of Enron’s business model came up with a devious plan to make the company appear to be in great shape, despite the fact that many of its subsidiaries were losing money.

That scheme was achieved through the use of special purpose entities (SPE)

An SPE could be used to hide any assets that were losing money or business ventures that had gone under; this would keep the failed assets off of the company's books.

In return, the company would issue to the investors of the SPE, shares of Enron's common stock, to compensate them for the losses.

PARTIES INVOLVED

Jeffrey Skilling- Jeffrey Skilling, the former CEO and architect of Enron’s business model, is in prison in Englewood, Colo., five years into a 24-year sentence for conspiracy, fraud, and insider trading. He continues to maintain his innocence and in November 2011, filed a second petition with the U.S. Supreme Court for a new trial.

Andy Fastow - Andy Fastow, the former chief financial officer and one-time Skilling protégé, pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts and agreed to a 10-year sentence in exchange for his testimony. He ultimately served only five years, completing the final months at home while working as a clerk at a Houston law firm. The sentence ends Dec. 17, 2011.

Sherron Watkins -Sherron Watkins, the Enron vice president who famously warned the company would “implode in a wave of accounting scandals,” gained fame as a whistleblower, but she says the label made her “radioactive” in the business world. Watkins makes her living on the lecture circuit, where she says business groups and students are still eager to hear about Enron.

ECONOMIC EFFECTS

Enron stands for the greatest company scandal in the history of the US economy and has become a symbol of corruption for the whole Western economic system.

4500 employees lost their jobs.

• Investors lost some 60 billion dollars within a few days; for many it meant losing their old-age security.

• Losses on the financial market amounted to the worst stock value loss in peaceful times.

• Banks were suspected of collusion.

• The auditing firm Arthur Anderson lost its accreditation.

• The rules for company financial reporting were drastically sharpened: Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002)

Bibliography

WALL STREET JOURNAL THE ECONOMIST www.global-ethic.us THE NEW YORK TIMES