Enron

ENRON

In 2000 Enron was the world’s leading corporation in selling natural gas with an estimated worth in sales of around one hundred billion dollars and the company showed only signs of progressing. Within one year the company went completely bankrupt and forty of their top employees were arrested or are in jail awaiting trials. How can a multinational corporation with steadily increasing revenue take such a drastic fall into bankruptcy and how did no one see this coming? In the end Enron knew exactly what was in their future and hid it from the public by allocating their debt and with a loophole in their accounting, it turned out to be one of the biggest cover ups in the stock markets history.

In 1985 Houston Natural Gas merged with InterNorth, which became what we now know as Enron. In the following years they had become one of the world’s largest natural gas merchant’s and eventually branched out to coal and steel. Enron’s success exploded into the scene with catastrophic increasing sales and revenue that was competing some of the most powerful companies, such as Microsoft and Exxon Mobil. Between 1996 and 2000 their revenue increased from 13.3 billion to 100.8 billion (fowler). This was an astronomical increase and almost seemed too good to be true. As the company grew in size, power, and prestige, Enron began engaging in ever more complicated contracts and undertakings. Illegal, off-the-balance-sheet transactions and partnerships were helping to conceal Enron’s increasing debt problem. By the time investors, employees, and the public learned of the company’s crisis, the downward spiral was virtually unstoppable.

Although executives at Enron were ruthless entrepreneurs, they were very good and precise at what they...

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...effery Skilling former Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer were both charged with bank fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. To date there have been over forty arrests with eighteen guilty pleas and four jury convictions along with trials still pending(prorate).

Oppel, Richard A., Jr, and Alex Berenson. "Enron's chief executive quits after only 6 months in job.(Jeffrey Skilling)." The New York Times (August 15, 2001)

Fowler, Tom “Enron’s implosion was anything but sudden” Houston Chronicle (December 20, 2005)

Berenson, Alex, and Richard A. Oppel Jr. "Once-mighty Enron strains under scrutiny." The New York Times (Oct 28, 2001)

John Porretto. "Ex-Enron broadband head sentenced", AP, June 18, 2007.

Berenson, Alex. "A self-inflicted wound aggravates angst over Enron.(Statistical Data Included)." The New York Times (Sept 9, 2001)