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The downfall of enron the real reasons
What led to the downfall of Enron
The downfall of enron the real reasons
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Alex Serdiouk Andrew Fastow, Enron Scandal The Enron scandal is one of the biggest scandals to take place in in American history. Enron was once one of the biggest companys in the world. It was the 6th largest energy company in the world. Due to Enron’s downfall investors of the company lost nearly 70 billion dollars. This was all due to many illegal activities done by Eron's employees. One of these employees was Andrew Fastow, the chief financial officer of the Enron corporation had a lot to do with the collapse of the Enron company. Andrew Fastow was born on December 22, 1961 in Washington D.C. He grew up in New Providence, New Jersey. Andrew was the second son of Carl and Joan Fastow who worked in merchandising. They were a typical middle-class Jewish family. Andrew was in many school activities in New Providence high school which is where he graduated. He was in the student government, played in the band, and played on the tennis team. He also took part in the board of education. Andrew was very well educated in economics and government. He earned his bachelors degree in economics at Tufts University where he earned he also met Lea Weingarten. Andrew Fastow married Lea Weingarten in 1984. A few years after graduating from Tufts university they both went to Northwestern university where they earned there MBA'S. They soon found jobs at Continental Illinois National Bank And Trust Company in Chicago. Andrew was a very smart and well educated person and this is why the Enron scandal happened. Andrew was hired to work at Enron in 1990 by Jeffrey Skilling because of his outstanding work at Continental. After 8 years Andrew was giving a very important position at Enron. He was named the chief financial officer of ... ... middle of paper ... ...ft. He responded by saying that it was nobody's business. People believe that Andrew Fastow and other Enron workers got off too lightly. They still have plenty of money left. Bibliography "Enron Fast Facts." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 06 Apr. 2014. Murphy, Kate, and Alexei Barrionuevo. "Fastow Sentenced To 6 Years." The New York Times. The New York Times, 26 Sept. 2006. Web. 06 Apr. 2014. "Fastow: Enron Didn’t Have to Go Bankrupt." CNBC.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014. "Andrew Fastow Draws on Enron Failure in Speech on Ethics at CU." - The Denver Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014. Meglio, Francesca Di. "Enron's Andrew Fastow: The Mistakes I Made." Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 22 Mar. 2012. Web. 06 Apr. 2014. "Andrew Fastow Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.
The Fastows headed to Mrs. Fastow's native Houston in 1990, both taking jobs at a young company called Enron. Just five years old, Enron was starting to evolve from a natural-gas and pipeline company into a trading firm. Mr. Fastow was one of the first managers hired by Mr. [Jeffrey Skilling], who himself had only recently arrived, from management consultants McKinsey & Co. Brought into Mr. Skilling's inner circle, Mr. Fastow returned the loyalty, telling colleagues he had named a child after his mentor. When Mr. Skilling became Enron's president and chief operating officer in early 1997, he and Mr. [Kenneth Lay] promoted Mr. Fastow to lead a new finance department. A year later, Mr. Fastow became chief financial officer.
Flynt, Sean. “Enron Whistleblower Tells Chilling Tale of Corporate Ruin.” Samford University. Ed. Donna Fitch. 19 Feb. 2004. 3 Mar. 2005.
Kenneth Lay’s violation was one of the revolting and shameful ethics ever done. Kenneth was the CEO and the chairman of Enron, an energy company. His mistake caused the entire company that he worked for to go bankrupt, and ruined Arthur Andersen, which was a very large audit firm at the time. He was guilty of money laundering, bank fraud, and insider trading.
Hansen, K. O., Valesquez, M., Moberg, D., & Calkins, M. (n.d). What Really Went Wrong With Enron? A Culture of Evil?. Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/ethicalperspectives/enronpanel.html
The three main crooks Chairman Ken Lay, CEO Jeff Skilling, and CFO Andrew Fastow, are as off the rack as they come. Fastow was skimming from Enron by ripping off the con artists who showed him how to steal, by hiding Enron debt in dummy corporations, and getting rich off of it. Opportunity theory is ever present because since this scam was done once without penalty, it was done plenty of more times with ease. Skilling however, was the typical amoral nerd, with delusions of grandeur, who wanted to mess around with others because he was ridiculed as a kid, implementing an absurd rank and yank policy that led to employees grading each other, with the lowest graded people being fired. Structural humiliation played a direct role in shaping Skilling's thoughts and future actions. This did not mean the worst employees were fired, only the least popular, or those who were not afraid to tell the truth. Thus, the corrupt culture of Enron was born. At one point, in an inter...
Enron. (2011, March 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 19, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enron&oldid=419486167
Enron Corporation started back in 1985. It was created as a merger of Houston Natural Gas and Omaha based InterNorth as a interstate pipeline company (CbcNews). Kenneth Lay was the former chief executive officer of Houston natural gas merged his company with another natural gas line company, Omaha Based InterNorth. During the time of the merger there were many arguments amongst the two companies and in the end Ken Lay the former C...
Enron was in trouble because of something that almost every major corporation during this time was guilty of. They inflated their profits. Things weren't looking good for them at the end of the 2001-year, so they made a common move and they restated their profits for the past four years. If this had worked to their like they could have gotten away with hiding millions of dollars in debt. That completely admitted that they had inflated their profits by hiding debt in confusing partner agreements. Enron could not deal with their debt so they did the only thing that was left to do, they filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. This went down as one of the largest companies to file for bankruptcy in the history of the United States. In just three months their share price dropped from $95 to below $1.
This paper will analyze Enron’s Code of Ethics and examine the sections on values and corporate responsibility. The paper will use applicable theories and concepts and will detail Ken Lay’s view of ethics and Enron’s corporate social performance. The paper will argue that Enron was not being socially responsible to all of its stakeholders because it deceived employees and investors about its real 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.
Based on what you read in this chapter, summarize in one page or less how you would explain Enron’s ethical meltdown.
Thomas, C.W. (April, 2002). The rise and fall of enron. When a company looks too good to be true, it usually is. Journal of Accountancy, Retrieved June 15, 2011, from http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2002/Apr/TheRiseAndFallOfEnron.htm
“When a company called Enron… ascends to the number seven spot on the Fortune 500 and then collapses in weeks into a smoking ruin, its stock worth pennies, its CEO, a confidante of presidents, more or less evaporated, there must be lessons in there somewhere.” - Daniel Henninger.
However, this partnership truly only assists Enron in concealing its debt and inflating its profits. Enron Corporation’s board accepts Fastow’s plan to run these partnerships and conduct agreements with Enron during his term as CFO of Enron. Former Chief Risk Officer (CRO), Rick Buy, and Causey are appointed to oversee these agreements to safeguard the assets of Enron Corporation.
Glater, Jonathan. "Enron Trail Stirs Memory of Andersen." New York Times 21 Feb 2006, web.
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,