sol of enron case
Enron Case
10.8.2014
Melissa Becker
Boya Du
Sidi (Fiona) Chen
Wei (David) Yu
In June of 2001 Enron’s new CEO, Jeff Skilling, was heralded as the “No. 1 CEO in the entire country and Enron was saluted as “America’s most innovated company.”1 Just six months later, in December, Enron filed for bankruptcy. The failure shocked the public and angered investors. How could this have happened? Did no one see this coming? Where were the accountants? Where were the controls? Enron’s public troubles began on October 16th of 2001 when management released a third quarter earnings report with a “mysterious $1.2 billion dollar reduction.” The following month the company restated earnings for the previous five years and erased $600 million in profits.2 It turned out that the October report began to reveal Enron’s gross abuse of special-purpose entities (SPEs) and the mark-to-market accounting method. The company used SPEs to keep enormous amounts of losses off its books while inflating earnings from supply contracts by booking all profits from a contract in the quarter the deal was made.3 What also became clear was that Enron did not accomplish their gross manipulations without the help from their accountant’s at Arthur Andersen. Enron shareholders and executives were not the only groups negatively affected by Enron’s aggressive accounting practices. Arthur Andersen was also unraveled because of the role it played in Enron’s materially misstated financial statements. In a letter to Kenneth Lay (, Enron’s CEO before and after Jeffrey Skilling’s short term) shortly after Jeffrey Skilling resigned, Sherron Watkins, a VP at Enron, expressed her concern with the state of the company and expressed stated concerns about Enron’s accounting practices even though they were “blessed” by Arthur Andersen.4 Because of these “blessings” Arthur Andersen (AA) personnel was deemed to be deeply involved in the corruption at Enron at all levels was not able to survive the aftermath of
10.8.2014
Melissa Becker
Boya Du
Sidi (Fiona) Chen
Wei (David) Yu
In June of 2001 Enron’s new CEO, Jeff Skilling, was heralded as the “No. 1 CEO in the entire country and Enron was saluted as “America’s most innovated company.”1 Just six months later, in December, Enron filed for bankruptcy. The failure shocked the public and angered investors. How could this have happened? Did no one see this coming? Where were the accountants? Where were the controls? Enron’s public troubles began on October 16th of 2001 when management released a third quarter earnings report with a “mysterious $1.2 billion dollar reduction.” The following month the company restated earnings for the previous five years and erased $600 million in profits.2 It turned out that the October report began to reveal Enron’s gross abuse of special-purpose entities (SPEs) and the mark-to-market accounting method. The company used SPEs to keep enormous amounts of losses off its books while inflating earnings from supply contracts by booking all profits from a contract in the quarter the deal was made.3 What also became clear was that Enron did not accomplish their gross manipulations without the help from their accountant’s at Arthur Andersen. Enron shareholders and executives were not the only groups negatively affected by Enron’s aggressive accounting practices. Arthur Andersen was also unraveled because of the role it played in Enron’s materially misstated financial statements. In a letter to Kenneth Lay (, Enron’s CEO before and after Jeffrey Skilling’s short term) shortly after Jeffrey Skilling resigned, Sherron Watkins, a VP at Enron, expressed her concern with the state of the company and expressed stated concerns about Enron’s accounting practices even though they were “blessed” by Arthur Andersen.4 Because of these “blessings” Arthur Andersen (AA) personnel was deemed to be deeply involved in the corruption at Enron at all levels was not able to survive the aftermath of