A Loan Versus A Sale Enron’s Case of fraudulent transactions with the banking firm of Merill Lynch proves to be a perfect example of how loans are used to boost sales while in fact they’re technically not sales. In 2004 the “Nigerian barge” transaction ensued with Enron selling electricity-generating power barges to Merill Lynch. A huge sale as the company executives recorded it but it turns out it was actually a loan rather than a sale and that Enron did not actually earned from the transaction thus the investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2004. Perhaps the big question to be answered in this essay is, why is the transaction considered a loan rather than a sale? And if it were a loan, how would it affect the company’s financial statements? First, it is important to define what a loan is in order to differentiate it from a sale. A loan is transaction between two entities that consists the delivery of an article to the other party which shall be used gratuitously and shall be returned at an appointed time, either as the exact article or in a different form that’s equivalent to the article’s worth (Oxford Dictionaries, n.d.). Based on the definition, a loan exists or a loan relationship exists if both of these elements are present: a money debt and a transaction for the lending of money. It is also important to note that a loan always involves repayment set a future point which may or may not involve payment of an interest (HM Revenue and customs, n.d., para.4). A sale on the other hand is defined as a transaction in which a property is transferred from one person to another in consideration of money or its equivalent paid to the owner of the good or product (The Law Dictionary, n.d.). A sale therefore is t... ... middle of paper ... ...d a repurchase should have been listed under Cash flow from Investing and Financing respectively and not Operating activities. This deliberate effort to label such is the company’s maneuver to trick the public and the analysts, giving the impression that the company is doing well, meeting its targets and generate a huge profit out of its operations. References: Investopedia (n.d.). Collaterals Definition. Retrieved April 4, 2014, from http://www.investopedia.com HM Revenue and customs. Loan Definition. Retrieved April 4, 2014, from http://www.hrmc.gov.uk Libby, R., Libby, P. &Short, D. (2009). Financial Accounting (6th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Oxford Dictionaries (n.d.). Loan definition. Retrieved April 4, 2014, from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us The Law Dictionary (n.d.). Legal definitions. Retrieved April 4, 2014, from http://thelawdictionary.org
This buyback would occur at a price of $34.88. Before the recap, there are 185.5 million shares outstanding, the market equity divided by the share price. After the recapitalization of $700 million, $1 billion, and $1.5 billion, the share price would be $39.12, $41.27, and $45.41, respectively. Because the number of shares decrease but the market equity remains constant, the share prices increases, and therefore, creates value for the shareholders. The number of shares outstanding in each scenario, will decrease by the amount of debt issued divided by the share price at the time of the buyback,
In 1985, after federal deregulation of natural gas pipelines, Enron was born from the merger of Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, a Nebraska pipeline company. In the process of the merger, Enron incurred a lot of debt and, as the result of deregulation, no longer had exclusive rights to its pipelines. In order to survive, the company had to come up with a new and innovative business strategy to generate profits and cash flow. Kenneth Lay, CEO, hired McKinsey & Co. to assist in developing Enron’s business strategy. It assigned Jeffrey Skilling to the task. Skilling, who had a background in banking and asset and liability management, proposed a revolutionary solution to Enron’s credit, cash, and profit worries in the gas pipeline business: create a “gas bank” in which Enron would buy gas from a network of suppliers and sell it to a network of consumers, contractually guaranteeing both the supply and the price, charging fees for the transactions and assuming the associated risks. Thanks to the young consultant, the company created both a new product and a new paradigm for the industry—the energy derivative. Lay was so impressed with Skilling’s ...
After the time of financial crisis, JP Morgan was not the only national bank in US which got involved in trade of toxic loans related to mortgage. Before JP Morgan, it was Goldman Sachs-another large US Bank that faced the allegation of manipulating the trades in its own self interes, ended up in favor of SEC while GoldMan Sachs were asked to pay $500 Million during late 2011 in a deal called Abascus 2007-AC1 where the bank were alleged to mislead its investors on a deal related to Collateral Debt Obligation(CDO). (Eaglesham, 2011) The ab...
Collateral for the defaulted loan. Distressed real estate involves making a distressed purchase. According to Financial Crisis (2011), “[A] distressed purchase is whereby the property owners are usually in a foreclosure/short sale situation.” Foreclosure applies to a residential real estate loan in which a bank or creditor repossesses a home because of nonpayment. The institution will legally possess the right to resell the property as collateral for the defaulted loan. The selling price can be sold at a price equal to or greater than the original loan. The reason distressed properties can be bought at a lower price is the institution has already received a series of payments toward the original home loan. In many situations the lender can sell the house for a lower cost than the normal market value, leaving the buyer the opportunity to make a purchase at a lower selling price than market value and reselling the property at a profit (Demand Media, 2011).
Buying and leasing are two very different approaches to obtaining a vehicle while both have their advantages and disadvantages both can also benefit the purchaser. There are many differences between the two but the primary difference is with buying money is paid to own the vehicle and with leasing money is paid to use the vehicle. According to the site www.towtrucknet.com/financing.htm, of the 15.5 million new vehicles sold in 1998 a record 5.3 million were leased. The three main differences are payments/price, depreciation value, and valuable differences.
Return on sales is decreasing and is below the industry average, but the goods news is that sales and profits have been increasing each year. However, costs of goods are increasing and more inventory is left over each year causing the return on sales to decrease. For 1995, it was 1.7% which is less than the average of 2.44% but is a lot higher than the bottom 25% of companies as seen in exhibit 3, which actually have negative sales return of 0.7%. Return on equity is increasing each year and at a higher rate than industry average. In 1995, it was 20.7%, greater than the average of 18.25% and close to the highest companies in exhibit 3, of 22.1% showing that the return in investment in the company is increasing, which is good for the owner.
Throughout history there have been many white collar crimes. These crimes are defined as non-violent and financial-based crimes that are full ranges of fraud committed by business and government professionals. These crimes are not victimless nor unnoticed. A single scandal can destroy a company and can lose investors millions of dollars. Today, fraud schemes are more sophisticated than ever, and through studying: Enron, LIBOR, Albert Wiggan and Chase National Bank, Lehman Brothers and Madoff, we find how the culprits started there deception, the aftermath of the scandal and what our country has done to prevent future scandals.
Madura, Jeff. What Every Investor Needs to Know About Accounting Fraud. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 1-156
Owning a home means gaining equity. If the owner keeps the house long enough for it to rise above the initial cost of its purchase, then that is profit. This is one of the most essential and superb matters associated with home ownership.
Jordan Belfort is the notorious 1990’s stockbroker who saw himself earning fifty million dollars a year operating a penny stock boiler room from his Stratton Oakmont, Inc. brokerage firm. Corrupted by drugs, money, and sex he went from being an innocent twenty – two year old on the fringe of a new life to manipulating the system in his infamous “pump and dump” scheme. As a stock swindler, he would motivate his young brokers through insane presentations to rile them up as they defrauded investors with duplicitous stock sales. Toward the end of this debauchery tale he was convicted for securities fraud and money laundering for which he was sentenced to twenty – two months in prison as well as recompensing two – hundred million in restitution to any swindled stock buyers of his brokerage firm (A&E Networks Television). Though his lavish spending and berserk party lifestyle was consumed by excessive greed, he displayed both positive and negative aspects of business communications.
Most people that decide to buy houses do so by applying for loans. There are two distinct types of mortgages or loans.
In 2008 the worst financial crisis since the great depression hit and left many people wondering who should be responsible. Many Americans supported the prosecution of Wall Street. To this day there have still not been any arrests of any executive on Wall Street for the financial collapse. Many analysts point out that greed of executives was one of the many factors in the crisis. I will talk about subprime loans, ill-intent, punishments, and white collar crime.
Mortgage loans are a substantial form of revenue for the financial industry. Mortgage loans generate billions of dollars in the financial industry. It is no secret that companies have the ability to make a lot of money by offering a variety of mortgage loan products. The problem was not mortgage loans but that mortgage companies were using unethical behavior to get consumer mortgage loans approved. Unfortunately, the Countrywide Financial case was not an isolated case. Many top name mortgage companies have been guilty of unethical behavior. Just as the American housing market was starting to recover from its worst battering since the Great Depression, a new scandal, an epidemic of flawed or fraudulent mortgage documents, threatens to send not just the housing market but the entire economy back into a tailspin (Nation, 2010).
The Enron Corporation was an American energy company that provided natural gas, electricity, and communications to its customers both wholesale and retail globally and in the northwestern United States (Ferrell, et al, 2013). Top executives, prestigious law firms, trusted accounting firms, the largest banks in the finance industry, the board of directors, and other high powered people, all played a part in the biggest most popular scandal that shook the faith of the American people in big business and the stock market with the demise of one of the top Fortune 500 companies that made billions of dollars through illegal and unethical gains (Ferrell, et al, 2013). Many shareholders, employees, and investors lost their entire life savings, investments,
Jordan Belfort is the notorious 1990’s stockbroker who saw himself earning fifty million dollars a year operating a penny stock boiler room from his Stratton Oakmont, Inc. brokerage firm. Corrupted by drugs, money, and sex, he went from being an innocent twenty – two year old on the fringe of a new life to manipulating the system in his infamous “pump and dump” scheme. As a stock swindler, he would motivate his young brokers through insane presentations to rile them up as they defrauded investors with duplicitous stock sales. Toward the end of this debauchery tale he was convicted for securities fraud and money laundering for which he was sentenced to twenty – two months in prison as well as recompensing two – hundred million in restitution to any swindled stock buyers of his brokerage firm. Though his lavish spending and berserk party lifestyle was consumed by excessive greed, he displayed both positive and negative aspects of business communications.