*Synopsis* Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room
Kenneth Lay founded Enron in 1985.
Two years after its founding, the company becomes embroiled in scandal after two traders begin betting on the oil markets, resulting in suspiciously consistent profits.
Enron's CEO, Louis Borget, is also discovered to be diverting company money to offshore accounts.
After auditors uncover their schemes, Lay encourages them to "keep making us millions".
However, the traders are fired after it is revealed that they gambled away Enron's reserves, nearly destroying the company.
After these facts are brought to light, Lay denies having any knowledge of wrongdoing.
Lay hires new CEO Jeffrey Skilling, a visionary who joins Enron on the condition that they utilize mark-to-model accounting, allowing the company to book potential profits on certain projects immediately after the deals are signed...whether or not those projects turn out to be successful.
This gives Enron the ability to subjectively give the appearance of being a profitable company even if it isn't.
Skilling imposes his Darwinian worldview on Enron by establishing a review committee that grades employees and annually fires the bottom fifteen percent.
This creates a highly competitive and brutal working environment.
Skilling hires lieutenants who enforce his directives inside Enron, known as the "guys with spikes."
They include J. Clifford Baxter, an intelligent but manic-depressive executive; and Lou Pai, the CEO of Enron Energy Services, who is notorious for using shareholder money to feed his obsessive habit of visiting strip clubs.
Pai abruptly resigns from EES with $250 million, soon after selling his stock.
Despite the amount of money Pai has made, the divisions he formerly ran lost $1 billion, a fact covered up by Enron.
Pai uses his money to buy a large ranch in Colorado, becoming the second-largest landowner in the state.
With its success in the bull market brought on by the dot-com bubble, Enron seeks to beguile stock market analysts by meeting their
Two years after its founding, the company becomes embroiled in scandal after two traders begin betting on the oil markets, resulting in suspiciously consistent profits.
Enron's CEO, Louis Borget, is also discovered to be diverting company money to offshore accounts.
After auditors uncover their schemes, Lay encourages them to "keep making us millions".
However, the traders are fired after it is revealed that they gambled away Enron's reserves, nearly destroying the company.
After these facts are brought to light, Lay denies having any knowledge of wrongdoing.
Lay hires new CEO Jeffrey Skilling, a visionary who joins Enron on the condition that they utilize mark-to-model accounting, allowing the company to book potential profits on certain projects immediately after the deals are signed...whether or not those projects turn out to be successful.
This gives Enron the ability to subjectively give the appearance of being a profitable company even if it isn't.
Skilling imposes his Darwinian worldview on Enron by establishing a review committee that grades employees and annually fires the bottom fifteen percent.
This creates a highly competitive and brutal working environment.
Skilling hires lieutenants who enforce his directives inside Enron, known as the "guys with spikes."
They include J. Clifford Baxter, an intelligent but manic-depressive executive; and Lou Pai, the CEO of Enron Energy Services, who is notorious for using shareholder money to feed his obsessive habit of visiting strip clubs.
Pai abruptly resigns from EES with $250 million, soon after selling his stock.
Despite the amount of money Pai has made, the divisions he formerly ran lost $1 billion, a fact covered up by Enron.
Pai uses his money to buy a large ranch in Colorado, becoming the second-largest landowner in the state.
With its success in the bull market brought on by the dot-com bubble, Enron seeks to beguile stock market analysts by meeting their