Enron’s top management, especially misled not only the board of directors he was able to misled the investor which bring about Enron filing for bankruptcy in 2001. In early, 2002 criminal investigation was open by US department of Justice into Enron’s collapse. The Security exchange commission (SEC) also opened the investigation into Arthur Andersen as well because they destroy and hide evidence of Enron’s financial statement. The role of the auditing giant Arthur Andersen in the collapse of Enron is incomprehensible to some. The accounting firm overlooked significant debts that are not the Enron’s financial statement. US department of justice found them guilty on federal charges that it obstructed justice by destroying thousands of Enron documents.…
What happened to Enron was just its founder at the time Ken Lay was greedy and unethical right from the beginning, and that was how he steered the boat to that direction. Instead of firing traders who were pocketing profits for themselves, manipulating reports which showed steady financial trends, he managed to keep them, because they were making a lot of money for the company. So he was giving opportunities for this staffs to do underhand works and he only cared if it made profits for the company. Later, when Jeff Skilling joined Enron, he developed what Lay had…
The company was formed in 1985 when Houston Natural Gas and Internorth merged. Enron started as a natural gas company that expanded to other energy and dot.com markets. They soon became one of the highest traded companies and in 2001 were fifth on the fortune 500 list. Despite what Enron was reporting in its books the company was losing money. They used unsound accounting loopholes and extremely complicated business models to fool investors into believing that the company was more profitable than it actually was. When these fictitious accounting practices came to light and the company released accurate financial reports, nearly 80% of reported profits were gone and the company soon collapsed. Not only did the top executives submit fraudulent financial statements, they saw the collapse coming and sold their shares, while lower level employees lost their pensions and…
Beginning in 1985, Enron was formed through a merger of Houston Natural Gas and Internorth, Enron Corporation. It was the first nationwide natural gas pipeline network, which shifted its focus from regulate transportation of natural gas to unregulated energy trading markets. Enron was a huge company that traded electricity, oil, gas, plastics, and other variables.…
Enron Corporation was one of the largest global energy, services and commodities company. Before it was filed bankruptcy under chapter 11, it sold natural gas and electricity, delivered energy and other commodities such as bandwidth internet connection, and provided risk management and financial services to the clients around the world. Enron was established in 1930 as Northern Natural Gas Company and joined with three other companies to undertake this industry. The four companies eventually began to break apart between 1941 and 1947 as a result of a public stock offering. In 1979, Northern Natural Gas was placed under new management when it was bought by InterNorth Inc. In 1985, Kenneth Lay, CEO of Houston Natural Gas Company devised a transaction for InterNorth to purchase Houston Natural Gas. Lay was named CEO of the new company and changed InterNorth's name to Enron Corporation. This newly developed company originally was involved in distributing gas and electricity throughout the United States, and operation of power plants and pipelines worldwide. In fifteen short years Enron became the nation's seventh largest company, but the company's growth was due to several illegal activities. During 2001, Enron shares fell from eighty-five dollars to thirty cents. The devastating results occurred after it was revealed that many of its profits and revenue were the result of deals with special purpose entities. Businesses and people care about ethics in the society, therefore being socially responsible, ethical, and a good corporate citizen, is important to meet and exceed the expectations of any organization's stakeholders. Today's organizations recognize the importance of developing and sustaining a reputation that is built on doing the right things and doing things right as viewed by their key stakeholders, as has been the case with Enron. The issues surrounding business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and…
Corruption is defined as dishonest or illegal behavior especially by powerful people (Merriam Webster). There is perhaps no company in our nation’s history that further exemplifies this word than Enron. Enron’s history of fraud, laundering, and deception is now known world-wide, and stands as the lead example for future companies practicing unethical behaviors. Enron’s corrupted culture, cultivated by CEO Jeffrey Skilling, made some very rich while ultimately leaving thousands in ruin.…
Enron was one of America’s leading companies prior to its spectacular collapse in 2001. It was frequently named as one of America’s top 10 most admired corporations and best places to work, and its board was acclaimed one of the US’ best five, according to Fortune magazine. As America’s seventh largest company, Enron experienced explosive growth through the 1990s. It had revenues of US$139 ($184) billion, US$62 ($82) billion in assets and employed more than 30,000 people across 20 countries.…
Enron was the country’s largest trader and marketer for electric and natural gas energy. Its core business was buying energy at a negotiated price and later, selling the energy when prices increased. As an energy broker, Enron provided a service by allowing producers to negotiate a certain price while Enron took the risk that prices would fall below what it bought energy. Buyers of energy also benefited because Enron could ensure the supply of energy. In 2000 Enron was listed number five on the Fortune 500. What happened to the company which was among the most admired for vision and quality thinking? Enron was the company that held virtual assets and not the real assets, such as power stations, which were capital incentive with low returns and ongoing debt.…
Was established in 1985, Enron was an American energy trading company based in Houston, Texas through the merger of two pipeline companies, Houston Natural Gas and Internorth Corporation. Enron Corporation set Special Purpose Vehicles are subsidiary corporations which are designed by the parent company to hide its debt and cheat the public. The essential purpose is to increase the companies’ profit and reputation, and it allows the general public to purchase its stock. In August of 2000, Enron reaches its peak market value of $68 Billion. By December 2001, Enron was in bankruptcy. Under the cloud of its financial scandals, the price per share plummeted from nearly $100 a share to less than 50¢ a share. On May 25, 2006, Enron was convicted of defrauding the public. Arthur Andersen, Enron’s auditors, allowed the chaos, and they had no paid for the responsibility of professional care. Enron was one of its biggest clients. It earned $27 million from Enron for consulting services, and only $25 million on auditing. At the time, Andersen was one of the top five accounting firms in the world. At the end, it was dissoluble due to its role in Enron’s financial scandal, and it committed auditing…
Two years after Enron filed for bankruptcy in 2001, Nancy b. Rapoport wrote this essay expressing her unique perspective on the real cause of Enron’s demise. This essay catches the reader’s attention instantly, because unlike abundant other articles written on the biggest corporate scandal in American history, the author here rejects Jeff Skilling’s (former president of Enron) argument1 of what brought about Enron’s downfall. She instead uses another metaphor, arguing that Enron’s downfall was more like Titanic’s- hubris and over reliance on checks and balances that led to its demise rather than a ‘Perfect Storm’ of events. The purpose behind her preference of the metaphor ‘Titanic’ over ‘Perfect storm’ clarifies and warns readers about not being misled into believing that Enron’s downfall was based on factors ‘outside of the company’s control’ rather was caused by a ‘synergetic combination of human errors’. In justifying the Titanic as a more apt analogy to the downfall of Enron, the author offers strong arguments such as how the Enron is in some sense a larger-than-life disaster much like the Titanic. While Titanic’s failure was tied to the unrealistic faith in technology to protect passengers, Enron’s failure was tied to the unrealistic faith that formal and informal checks and balances could always keep the market honest. However, her strongest argument of ‘hubris’ found both in the top executives of Enron as well as the officers of Titanic is not convincing. As much as the greed for money is evident in Enron employees and their arrogant behavior, her equivalent assertion that the Titanic can trace the loss of life directly to human arrogance (pg 209) lacks adequate evidence. Whether her proof of…
This writing will analyze Enron’s Code of Ethics and examine the sections on values and corporate responsibility, it will also use applicable theories and concepts and will detail Ken Lay’s view of ethics and Enron’s corporate social performance, as well as reflect Enron to be socially irresponsible to everyone with any type of financial investment in Enron because of the deception it practiced with employees and investors about its true financial status, despite having stated in its company code of ethics that transparency, integrity, and respect for the law would be the cornerstones of its daily operations.…
Due to the actions of the ENRON executives, the ENRON Company went bankrupt. The loss sustained by investors exceeded $70 billion. Furthermore, these actions cost both trustees and employees upwards of $2 billion; this total is considered to be a result of misappropriated investments, pension funds, stock options, and savings plans – as a result of the government regulation and the limited liability status of the ENRON Corporation, only a small amount of the money lost was ever returned.…
In October 2001 it was revealed that reported financial condition of Enron Corporation was sustained substantially by institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud. Enron misrepresented its profits and was accused for a range of shady dealings, including concealing debts so they didn 't record it in the company 's accounts. On December 2, 2001 the Enron Corporation announced about its bankruptcy and dissolution of Arthur Andersen. Additional to the bankruptcy, the company was recognized as the biggest audit failure in American history of audit.…
It is perhaps the most compelling business ethics case in a generation—a textbook version of what can go wrong in an organization that lacks a true culture of ethical compliance. Investors and the media once considered Enron to be the company of the future, but as its demise suggests, it was in reality not a particularly modern business organization, especially in its approach to ethics. On the surface, at least, it appeared to reject progressive innovation in governance and ethics programs and instead sought to circumvent systems that were designed to protect the company and its shareholders. The purpose of this report is not to comment on the legal or political ramifications of the case but rather to focus on the business ethics issues raised by the conduct of the company’s directors and officers, its accountants, and lawyers as it is known to date. It is meant to be a reminder that simply having a detailed code of ethics on the books (as Enron certainly did) is not enough. Organizations need to infuse ethics and integrity throughout their corporate culture as well as into their definition of success.…
Enron, a Houston-based commodities, energy and service corporation, was named “America’s Most Innovative Company” for six consecutive years by Fortune Magazine. Ironically, its shares price had peaked at $90.75 in August 2000 and dropped massively to $0.67 in January, resulting in shareholders losing approximately $11 billion. In the November of 2011, it was revealed that Enron’s earnings had been overstated by several hundred billion dollars because enormous debts had been kept off from the balance sheets and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opened a formal investigation into Enron’s transaction. Enron incorporated “market to market accounting” for its energy business and used it on an unprecedented scale for its trading transactions,…