Enron Identify one of the examples of financial reporting misconduct associated with the Enron scandal In the wake of the stratospheric success and subsequent fall of Enron, many were compelled to ask: how could this be possible, namely how could a firm which seemed so successful on the surface be so corrupt at its core? The answer, although not simple, can be boiled down to this: creative financial accounting. While Enron deployed many techniques to hide its falling profits, one of its most successful was the creation of "special purpose entities [or vehicles] -- subsidiaries that have a single purpose and that did not need to be included in Enron's balance sheet" and "were used to hide risky investment activities and financial losses" (Folger 2011)
Further, I will also take into consideration people implicated in the scandal and the legal actions that were taken against them. Enron: An Overview In basic terms, the 1985 merger between InterNorth and Huston Natural Gas informed the formation of Enron as we know it (Fernando, 2009)
It was through the unethical use of SPEs that Enron not only defrauded direct investors of their money, but caused financial harm to a multitude of others from their employees to local charities, resulting in a period of corporate suspicion that negative affected the energy industry as well as the American business world, as a whole. Enron robbed people of their retirement funds, lost investors millions of dollars and wreaked havoc upon the American economic and social systems (Kranacher)
This would be part of the federal law enforcement action as well. Local law enforcement would also need to be notified in the event that turning Enron in to the SEC and Attorney General caused company employees, executives, or shareholders to become unruly or to flee the situation (Ortmeier, P
1 billion in stock (Enron scandal at-a-glance, 2002, BBC). Both investors and employees alike saw their life savings wiped out as a result of the fraud (Kadlec 2002)
Duncan pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with document shredding. The Texas State Board of Public Accountancy, in lieu of further disciplinary proceedings, revoked Duncan's license" (Romal & Hibschweiler 2004)
The Texas State Board of Public Accountancy, in lieu of further disciplinary proceedings, revoked Duncan's license" (Romal & Hibschweiler 2004). Auditing has traditionally been a self-regulating profession, but after Enron, SOX put into place independent legal guidelines to prevent ethical breaches (Verschoor 2012)
S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate Enron'ss practices and look into possible fraud charges (Gup)
Watkins, a certified public accountant who worked for Andersen for eight years before joining Enron. "It is never appropriate to use stock as an income transfer (Hill)
In exchange for that cash, the sponsor sells an asset to the SPE and then leases it back under an operating lease (sale-leaseback). Under certain circumstances, the debt used by the SPE to acquire the asset would be its own liability and would not appear on the sponsor's balance sheet (Holtzman et al
Secrecy became the order of the day for many of the company's trading contracts, as well as its disclosures (Thomas 2002)." In his article, Jackson asserts that the methods used to review employee performance created an environment in which people were afraid to anger those who might mess up their reviews (Jackson)
The author insists that the collapse of Enron was caused by a lack of accountability. Prentice asserts that regulating Enron seemed unnecessary in the eyes of traditional economist because they believed that the company was rational and would perform honestly to protect its own interests (Prentice)
(4) The specific enhancements contained within the WCCPA increase the maximum jail sentences for individuals convicted of certain ERISA violations, fraud, and conspiracies to commit fraud by a factor of four to ten. The WCCPA also makes it a crime for corporate officers to falsely certify the reports submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (Recine)
The author confirms that two months prior to the debacle Forbes published an article stating, "Enron has grown into the world's largest electricity marketer since we last wrote about it. Now a new surge in revenues might be in the offing (Sherman 2002)
However, during the late 1980s Enron struggled as a pipeline company in a period of plummeting natural gas prices. According to an article in the Journal of Accountancy, this struggle was fueled by the fact that Enron incurred a large amount of debt as a result of the merger; in addition deregulation meant that the company no longer had control over its pipeline (Thomas 2002)
. The spotlight will be on us, the market can't just accept that Skilling is leaving his dream job (Watkins)
This made more difficult the already complicated analysis of Enron profitability data by its auditors. Ultimately, though the auditors, Arthur Andersen, joined in the obfuscation (Thomas, 2002)
Corporate failure alone is no cause for scandal, but in this case Enron had undertaken a variety of illegal activities. They had kept key transactions off of their books, thereby hiding losses from investors and regulators (Wee, 2001)
.used secret investments and tricky math to make Enron appear stronger than it was" (Bauman, 2002)
treating others like peasants and claiming all that they see" (Johnson, p 37). The accounting scandals at Enron and ethical attitudes in general are the subject of an article in Social Science Quarterly (Conroy, et al