Advertisement
| enron scandal book: A Financial History of Modern U.S. Corporate Scandals Jerry W Markham, 2015-01-28 A definitive new reference on the major failures of American corporate governance at the start of the 21st century. Tracing the market boom and bust that preceded Enron's collapse, as well as the aftermath of that failure, the book chronicles the meltdown in the telecom sector that gave rise to accounting scandals globally. Featuring expert analysis of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation that was adopted in response to these scandals, the author also investigates the remarkable market recovery that followed the scandals. An exhaustive guide to the collapse of the Enron Corporation and other financial scandals that erupted in the wake of the market downturn of 2000, this book is an essential resource for students, teachers and professionals in corporate governance, finance, and law. |
| enron scandal book: Conspiracy of Fools Kurt Eichenwald, 2005-03-14 From an award-winning New York Times reporter comes the full, mind-boggling true story of the lies, crimes, and ineptitude behind the Enron scandal that imperiled a presidency, destroyed a marketplace, and changed Washington and Wall Street forever. It was the corporate collapse that appeared to come out of nowhere. In late 2001, the Enron Corporation—a darling of the financial world, a company whose executives were friends of presidents and the powerful—imploded virtually overnight, leaving vast wreckage in its wake and sparking a criminal investigation that would last for years. Kurt Eichenwald transforms the unbelievable story of the Enron scandal into a rip-roaring narrative of epic proportions, taking readers behind every closed door—from the Oval Office to the executive suites, from the highest reaches of the Justice Department to the homes and bedrooms of the top officers. It is a tale of global reach—from Houston to Washington, from Bombay to London, from Munich to Sao Paolo—laying out the unbelievable scenes that twisted together to create this shocking true story. Eichenwald reveals never-disclosed details of a story that features a cast including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul O’Neill, Harvey Pitt, Colin Powell, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alan Greenspan, Ken Lay, Andy Fastow, Jeff Skilling, Bill Clinton, Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone. With its you-are-there glimpse into the secretive worlds of corporate power, Conspiracy of Fools is an all-true financial and political thriller of cinematic proportions. |
| enron scandal book: The Smartest Guys in the Room Bethany McLean, 2004 |
| enron scandal book: Power Failure Mimi Swartz, Sherron Watkins, 2004-03-09 “They’re still trying to hide the weenie,” thought Sherron Watkins as she read a newspaper clipping about Enron two weeks before Christmas, 2001. . . It quoted [CFO] Jeff McMahon addressing the company’s creditors and cautioning them against a rash judgment. “Don’t assume that there is a smoking gun.” Sherron knew Enron well enough to know that the company was in extreme spin mode… Power Failure is the electrifying behind-the-scenes story of the collapse of Enron, the high-flying gas and energy company touted as the poster child of the New Economy that, in its hubris, had aspired to be “The World’s Leading Company,” and had briefly been the seventh largest corporation in America. Written by prizewinning journalist Mimi Swartz, and substantially based on the never-before-published revelations of former Enron vice-president Sherron Watkins, as well as hundreds of other interviews, Power Failure shows the human face beyond the greed, arrogance, and raw ambition that fueled the company’s meteoric rise in the late 1990s. At the dawn of the new century, Ken Lay’s and Jeff Skilling's faces graced the covers of business magazines, and Enron’s money oiled the political machinery behind George W. Bush’s election campaign. But as Wall Street analysts sang Enron’s praises, and its stock spiraled dizzyingly into the stratosphere, the company’s leaders were madly scrambling to manufacture illusory profits, hide its ballooning debt, and bully Wall Street into buying its fictional accounting and off-balance-sheet investment vehicles. The story of Enron’s fall is a morality tale writ large, performed on a stage with an unforgettable array of props and side plots, from parking lots overflowing with Boxsters and BMWs to hot-house office affairs and executive tantrums. Among the cast of characters Mimi Swartz and Sherron Watkins observe with shrewd Texas eyes and an insider’s perspective are: CEO Ken Lay, Enron’s “outside face,” who was more interested in playing diplomat and paving the road to a political career than in managing Enron’s high-testosterone, anything-goes culture; Jeff Skilling, the mastermind behind Enron’s mercenary trading culture, who transformed himself from a nerdy executive into the personification of millennial cool; Rebecca Mark, the savvy and seductive head of Enron’s international division, who was Skilling’s sole rival to take over the company; and Andy Fastow, whose childish pranks early in his career gave way to something far more destructive. Desperate to be a player in Enron’s deal-making, trader-oriented culture, Fastow transformed Enron’s finance department into a “profit center,” creating a honeycomb of financial entities to bolster Enron’s “profits,” while diverting tens of millions of dollars into his own pockets An unprecedented chronicle of Enron’s shocking collapse, Power Failure should take its place alongside the classics of previous decades – Barbarians at the Gate and Liar’s Poker – as one of the cautionary tales of our times. |
| enron scandal book: Enron Loren Fox, 2003-12-22 I'd say you were a carnival barker, except that wouldn't be fair tocarnival barkers. A carnie will at least tell you up front that he's running a shell game. You, Mr. Lay, were running what purported to be the seventh largest corporation in America.-Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) to Enron CEO Kenneth Lay, Senate Commerce Science & Transportation's Subcommittee, Hearing on Enron, 2/12/02 The speed of Enron's rise and fall is truly astonishing and perhaps the single most important story of corporate failure in the twenty-first century. In Enron investigative journalist Loren Fox promises readers nothing short of the most compelling and insightful investigation into Enron's meteoric ascent-regarded by Wall Street and the media as the epitome of innovation-and its spectacular fall from grace. In a lively and authoritative manner, Fox discusses how the biggest corporate bankruptcy in American business history happened, why for so long no one (except for an enlightened few) saw it coming, and what its impact will be on financial markets, the U.S. economy, U.S. energy policy, and the public for years to come. With access to many company insiders, Fox's intriguing account of this corporate debacle also provides an overview of the corporate culture and business model that led to Enron's high-flying success and disastrous failure. The story of Enron is one that will reverberate in global financial and energy markets as well as in criminal and civil courts for years to come. Rife with all the elements of a classic thriller-scandal, dishonest accounting, personal greed, questionable campaign contributions, suicide-Enron captures the essence of a company that went too far too fast. |
| enron scandal book: Final Accounting Barbara Ley Toffler, Jennifer Reingold, 2003-03-04 A withering exposé of the unethical practices that triggered the indictment and collapse of the legendary accounting firm. Arthur Andersen's conviction on obstruction of justice charges related to the Enron debacle spelled the abrupt end of the 88-year-old accounting firm. Until recently, the venerable firm had been regarded as the accounting profession's conscience. In Final Accounting, Barbara Ley Toffler, former Andersen partner-in-charge of Andersen's Ethics & Responsible Business Practices consulting services, reveals that the symptoms of Andersen's fatal disease were evident long before Enron. Drawing on her expertise as a social scientist and her experience as an Andersen insider, Toffler chronicles how a culture of arrogance and greed infected her company and led to enormous lapses in judgment among her peers. Final Accounting exposes the slow deterioration of values that led not only to Enron but also to the earlier financial scandals of other Andersen clients, including Sunbeam and Waste Management, and illustrates the practices that paved the way for the accounting fiascos at WorldCom and other major companies. Chronicling the inner workings of Andersen at the height of its success, Toffler reveals the making of an Android, the peculiar process of employee indoctrination into the Andersen culture; how Androids—both accountants and consultants--lived the mantra keep the client happy; and how internal infighting and billing your brains out rather than quality work became the all-important goals. Toffler was in a position to know when something was wrong. In her earlier role as ethics consultant, she worked with over 60 major companies and was an internationally renowned expert at spotting and correcting ethical lapses. Toffler traces the roots of Andersen's ethical missteps, and shows the gradual decay of a once-proud culture. Uniquely qualified to discuss the personalities and principles behind one of the greatest shake-ups in United States history, Toffler delivers a chilling report with important ramifications for CEOs and individual investors alike. |
| enron scandal book: Enron Lucy Prebble, 2024-06-13 The political theatre of the 21st century has arrived, in some style. The Times The most infamous scandal in corporate history. The most vilified figures in the financial world. The most audacious (and destructive) display of greed history has ever seen. Charting the notorious rise and fall of the eponymous company and its founding partners Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, Lucy Prebble's Enron is a pulse-racing and rage-inducing parable, exploring the limits of greed... or lack thereof. Mixing classical tragedy with savage comedy, Enron is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Natasha Tripney. |
| enron scandal book: What Went Wrong at Enron Peter C. Fusaro, Ross M. Miller, 2002-10-01 An easy answer guide to the difficult questions surrounding Enron What Went Wrong at Enron explains the critical steps, transactions, and events that led to the demise of a company that was once considered one of the most innovative corporations in the United States. Energy risk management expert Peter Fusaro gets inside Enron and provides a coherent account of the who, why, where, and when of this corporate debacle, without sacrificing the complexity of what has happened. Enron has been front-page news for months, but confusion still remains about what actually happened. What Went Wrong at Enron is written for readers who find themselves wondering what exactly is an energy trading company, what was the sequence of events that caused the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history, and what does this all mean for me. |
| enron scandal book: The Death Shift Peter Elkind, 2021-11-16 The true story of a killer nurse whose crimes were hidden by a hospital for years. It’s 1980, and Genene Jones is working the 3 to 11 PM shift in the pediatric ICU in San Antonio's county hospital. As the weeks go by, infants under her care begin experiencing unexpected complications—and dying—in alarming numbers, prompting rumors that there is a murderer among the staff. Her eight-hour shift would come to be called “the death shift.” This strange epidemic would continue unabated for more than a year, before Jones is quietly sent off—with a good recommendation—to a rural pediatric clinic. There, eight children under her care mysteriously stopped breathing—and a 15-month-old baby girl died. In May 1984, Jones was finally arrested, leading to a trial that revealed not only her deeply disturbed mind and a willingness to kill, but a desire to play “God” with the lives of the children under her care. More shocking still was that the hospital had shredded records and remained silent about Jones’ horrific deeds, obscuring the full extent of her spree and prompting grieving parents to ask: Why? Elkind chronicles Jones’ rampage, her trials, and the chilling aftermath of one of the most horrific crimes in America, and turns his piercing gaze onto those responsible for its cover-up. It is a tale with special relevance today, as prosecutors, distraught parents, and victims’ advocates struggle to keep Jones behind bars. “A horrifying true-life medical thriller...”—Publishers Weekly “Gripping...A remarkable journalistic achievement!”—Newsweek “Murder, madness, and medicine...superb!”—Library Journal “Shocking...true crime reporting at its most compelling.”—Booklist |
| enron scandal book: Pipe Dreams Robert Bryce, 2002-10-09 There's also a devastating profile of Rebecca Mark, a largely-ignored player in the Enron saga, whose bad deals in India and the water business cost investors $2 billion.--BOOK JACKET. |
| enron scandal book: Creative Accounting, Fraud and International Accounting Scandals Michael J. Jones, 2011-11-01 Business scandals are always with us from the South Sea Bubble to Enron and Parmalat. As accounting forms a central element of any business success or failure, the role of accounting is crucial in understanding business scandals. This book aims to explore the role of accounting, particularly creative accounting and fraud, in business scandals. The book is divided into three parts. In Part A the background and context of creative accounting and fraud is explored. Part B looks at a series of international accounting scandals and Part C draws some themes and implications from the country studies. |
| enron scandal book: A Financial History of Modern U.S. Corporate Scandals Jerry W Markham, 2015-01-28 A definitive new reference on the major failures of American corporate governance at the start of the 21st century. Tracing the market boom and bust that preceded Enron's collapse, as well as the aftermath of that failure, the book chronicles the meltdown in the telecom sector that gave rise to accounting scandals globally. Featuring expert analysis of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation that was adopted in response to these scandals, the author also investigates the remarkable market recovery that followed the scandals. An exhaustive guide to the collapse of the Enron Corporation and other financial scandals that erupted in the wake of the market downturn of 2000, this book is an essential resource for students, teachers and professionals in corporate governance, finance, and law. |
| enron scandal book: Anatomy of Greed Brian Cruver, 2002-08-14 A gonzo chronicle that goes behind the scenes to chart the decline and fall of the world's weirdest and richest business cult, and the largest bankruptcy ever by an American company. photos. |
| enron scandal book: Enron Nancy B. Rapoport, Bala G. Dharan, 2004 This law school text explores the Enron debacle from a variety of different aspects. Essays analyze the business-government interactions and decisions that laid the foundations for Enron's growth and subsequent demise. Other essays describe and detail the complex web of partnerships and accounting tricks used by Enron to hide bad news and project good news. While other essays focus on the ethical and legal dimensions of the Enron crisis, and their lessons for business and law students, as well as for society. |
| enron scandal book: House of Cards Lynn Brewer, Matthew Scott Hansen, 2002 This is Brewer's gripping account of nearly three years spent with the company that has come to symbolize the worst in corporate greed. Lynn's riveting tale takes readers deep into the heart of Enron for a shocking look at both the notorious illicit deals and the unscrupulous people who made them. |
| enron scandal book: Corporate Scandal John Gledhill, 2004-07-01 When the Enron filed the biggest bankruptcy petition in the history of the United States, if not the world, the immediate response by most politicians and financiers was that this scandal was a “failure of regulatory institutions” that can be corrected and may possibly even be a purely North American problem. However, an in-depth exploration of what happened, as undertaken in this volume, reveals that the widespread corruptions at corporate level have their roots in the transformations of socio-political conditions in the wake of an extreme fetishization of the neo-liberal market model. |
| enron scandal book: The Smartest Guys in the Room Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind, 2013-11-26 In this tenth-anniversary edition, acclaimed investigative journalists Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind deliver the definitive account of the fall of Enron, one of the biggest scandals in corporate America history. Meticulously researched and character driven, The Smartest Guys in the Room takes the reader deep into Enron's past—and behind the closed doors of private meetings. Drawing on a wide range of unique sources, the book follows Enron's rise from obscurity to the top of the business world to its disastrous demise. It reveals as never before major characters such as Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Andy Fastow, as well as lesser-known players like Cliff Baxter and Rebecca Mark. It is a story of greed, arrogance, and deceit—a microcosm of all that can go wrong with American business. Above all, it's a fascinating human drama that has proven to be the authoritative account of the Enron scandal. In this tenth anniversary edition, McLean and Elkind revisit the fall of Enron and its aftermath in a new chapter. |
| enron scandal book: Enron Arthur L. Berkowitz, 2002 |
| enron scandal book: After Enron William A. Niskanen, 2007 After Enron first describes the conditions that led to the collapse of Enron and other corporate scandals and the concerns that these developments raised among the public, the press, and political officials. The book then describes and evaluates the initial private and public responses to these developments and concludes that most of these responses were unnecessary, harmful, or inadequate. There are four major lessons learned during the post-Enron scandal era: Don't count too much on financial accounting. Don't count too much on auditing. The tax system is an important part of the problem. The rules of corporate governance do not adequately serve the interests of general shareholders. After Enron addresses the major lessons for public policy affecting accounting, auditing, taxation, and corporate government. It proposes a set of policy changes to address the lessons learned from the Enron scandal. The first major set of proposed changes would delegate the authority to establish and monitor accounting and disclosure standards to each stock exchange. A second major proposal would replace the corporate income tax with a cash flow tax. And a final set of proposed policy changes would replace the rules of corporate governance that are now biased against the interest of the general shareholders. The most distinctive feature of the book is that the major proposed policy changes would address the problems illustrated by the corporate scandals by reducing and focusing the role of government. |
| enron scandal book: The Totally Unauthorized Enron Joke Book Tim Barry, 2002-03 A collection of jokes, top lists, poems, puns, news parodies and other humorous items about Enron, Arthur Andersen accounting and the biggest business disaster in U.S. History. The book uses contemporary events and celebrities to make the material come alive for the reader. Timely, irreverent and sharply satirical, the book can be enjoyed by anyone interested in contemporary humor. |
| enron scandal book: The Enron Scandal. Main Reasons for the Downfall of the Company Milena Luke, 2018-11-22 Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,3, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, course: Auditing / Wirtschaftsprüfung, language: English, abstract: This essay discusses the scandal of Enron Corporation. In the first part, main reasons having led to its sudden and scandalous downfall will be explained; in particular accounting and business practices as well as corporate governance will be outlined. Subsequently, in the second part, important parties having been involved will be shown; notably the role of the auditing company Arthur Andersen and their conduct will be analyzed. In a final step, aftermaths for Enron, Arthur Andersen and further involved actors will be outlined. A special focus will be on consequences for the accounting world and how regulations have been changed in order to prevent future accounting violations. |
| enron scandal book: Disruption in the Audit Market Krish Bhaskar, John Flower, 2019-04-16 Focussing on the dominance of the Big Four auditing firms – PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG – this concise volume provides an authoritative critical assessment of the state and future of the audit market, currently the subject of much debate and the focus of significant government enquiries. Drawing on extensive research and a vast collection of evidence from interviews with insiders, experts and users, it explores the key issues of audit quality, independence, choice and the growing expectation gap. Just as disruptive technologies are overturning other established sectors, this book explores their impact on accounting, financial reporting and auditing. It questions whether the Big Four-dominated audit market is prepared not only for the inevitable disruption of new technologies, but also the challenges of negative public perceptions, cynicism about regulation and demands for greater transparency. In the context of increasing high-profile corporate failures, this book provides a compelling scrutiny of the industry’s failings and present difficulties, and the impact of future disruption. At this crucial time, it will be of great interest to students, researchers and professionals in accounting and auditing, as well as policy makers and regulators. |
| enron scandal book: Innovation Corrupted Malcolm S. Salter, 2002 This paper presents a brief historical overview of Enron's rise and fall and summarizes what the authors currently know about (1) the evolution of Enron's business model, (2) those organizational processes relied upon by senior Enron officials to drive and monitor the business, (3) emergent behavior related to the structuring, management, and valuation of major partnerships, and (4)oversight provided by Enron's management and board of directors. It concludes by posing the question of how Enron's story as anew, post-deregulation corporate model could have escaped critical analysis by the financial community, the business press, and other observers for so long. As such, this paper is an exercise in description, not interpretation. Since many of the facts about Enron's rise and fall have yet to be determined and agreed upon, this description must be considered tentative and incomplete. Nevertheless, the broad contours of the Enron story presented in this paper provide a sufficient basis for developing initial hypotheses about what might have caused such a swift and ignominious fall and what business and public policies might best protect employees, shareholders, and other relevant parties in the future from the kind of injuries experienced in Enron's swift decline into bankruptcy. |
| enron scandal book: Hidden Financial Risk J. Edward Ketz, 2003-08-08 An insider's guide to understanding and eliminating accounting fraud How do these high-profile accounting scandals occur and what could have been done to prevent them. Hidden Financial Risk fills that void by examining methods for off balance sheet accounting, with a particular emphasis on special purpose entities (SPE), the accounting ruse of choice at Enron and other beleaguered companies. J. Edward Ketz identifies the incentives for managers to deceive investors and creditors about financial risk and also shows investors how to protect their investments in a world filled with accounting and auditing frauds. J. Edward Ketz, PhD (State College, PA) is MBA Faculty Director and Associate Professor of Accounting at Penn State's Smeal College of Business. He has been cited in the press nearly 300 times since Enron's bankruptcy, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.. He has a regular column in Accounting Today. |
| enron scandal book: All the Devils Are Here Bethany McLean, Joe Nocera, 2011-08-30 The New York Times bestseller hailed as the best business book of 2010 (Huffington Post). As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers? According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, the real answer is all of the above-and more. Many devils helped bring hell to the economy. And the full story, in all of its complexity and detail, is like the legend of the blind men and the elephant. Almost everyone has missed the big picture. Almost no one has put all the pieces together. All the Devils Are Here goes back several decades to weave the hidden history of the financial crisis in a way no previous book has done. It explores the motivations of everyone from famous CEOs, cabinet secretaries, and politicians to anonymous lenders, borrowers, analysts, and Wall Street traders. It delves into the powerful American mythology of homeownership. And it proves that the crisis ultimately wasn't about finance at all; it was about human nature. |
| enron scandal book: The Enron Scandal Theodore F. Sterling, 2002 Preface; Enron: A Select Chronology of Congressional, Corporate, and Government Activities; Enron and Stock Analyst Objectivity; Soft Money, Allegations of Political Corruption, and Enron; Enron: Selected Securities, Accounting, and Pension Laws Possibly Implicated in Its Collapse; The Enron Collapse: An Overview of Financial Issues; Auditing and Its Regulators: Proposals for Reform after Enron; Enron's Banking Relationships and Congressional Repeal of Statutes Separating Bank Lending from Investment Banking; Enron Bankruptcy: Issues for Financial Oversight; The Enron Bankruptcy and Employer Stock in Retirement Plans; Enron and Taxes; Title vs Enron Corp. and Fiduciary Duties Under ERISA; Possible Criminal Provisions Which May Be Implicated in the Events Surrounding the Collapse of the Enron Corporation; Index. |
| enron scandal book: Creative Accounting, the Enron Case and Its Impact on Corporate Governance Matthias Kammerer, 2009 Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Accounting and Taxes, grade: 1,0, University of Northampton (University of Northampton), course: Managing Finance & Financial Decisions, 19 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In the last decades creative accounting and corporate governance emerged as common used terms in economical debates. In my assignment I want to point out the meaning and relevance of these concepts as well as to establish a relationship to the Enron case as one of the most prominent corporate collapses in recent years. |
| enron scandal book: The Role of the Board of Directors in Enron's Collapse United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, 2002 |
| enron scandal book: Spam Finn Brunton, 2015-01-30 What spam is, how it works, and how it has shaped online communities and the Internet itself. The vast majority of all email sent every day is spam, a variety of idiosyncratically spelled requests to provide account information, invitations to spend money on dubious products, and pleas to send cash overseas. Most of it is caught by filters before ever reaching an in-box. Where does it come from? As Finn Brunton explains in Spam, it is produced and shaped by many different populations around the world: programmers, con artists, bots and their botmasters, pharmaceutical merchants, marketers, identity thieves, crooked bankers and their victims, cops, lawyers, network security professionals, vigilantes, and hackers. Every time we go online, we participate in the system of spam, with choices, refusals, and purchases the consequences of which we may not understand. This is a book about what spam is, how it works, and what it means. Brunton provides a cultural history that stretches from pranks on early computer networks to the construction of a global criminal infrastructure. The history of spam, Brunton shows us, is a shadow history of the Internet itself, with spam emerging as the mirror image of the online communities it targets. Brunton traces spam through three epochs: the 1970s to 1995, and the early, noncommercial computer networks that became the Internet; 1995 to 2003, with the dot-com boom, the rise of spam's entrepreneurs, and the first efforts at regulating spam; and 2003 to the present, with the war of algorithms—spam versus anti-spam. Spam shows us how technologies, from email to search engines, are transformed by unintended consequences and adaptations, and how online communities develop and invent governance for themselves. |
| enron scandal book: Following the Money George Benston, Michael Bromwich, Robert E. Litan, Alfred Wagenhofer, 2004-05-13 A few years ago, Americans held out their systems of corporate governance and financial disclosure as models to be emulated by the rest of the world. But in late 2001 U.S. policymakers and corporate leaders found themselves facing the largest corporate accounting scandals in American history. The spectacular collapses of Enron and Worldcom—as well as the discovery of accounting irregularities at other large U.S. companies—seemed to call into question the efficacy of the entire system of corporate governance in the United States. In response, Congress quickly enacted a comprehensive package of reform measures in what has come to be known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ followed by making fundamental changes to their listing requirements. The private sector acted as well. Accounting firms—watching in horror as one of their largest, Arthur Andersen, collapsed after a criminal conviction for document shredding—tightened their auditing procedures. Stock analysts and ratings agencies, hit hard by a series of disclosures about their failings, changed their practices as well. Will these reforms be enough? Are some counterproductive? Are other shortcomings in the disclosure system still in need of correction? These are among the questions that George Benston, Michael Bromwich, Robert E. Litan, and Alfred Wagenhofer address in Following the Money. While the authors agree that the U.S. system of corporate disclosure and governance is in need of change, they are concerned that policymakers may be overreacting in some areas and taking actions in others that may prove to be ineffective or even counterproductive. Using the Enron case as a point of departure, the authors argue that the major problem lies not in the accounting and auditing standards themselves, but in the system of enforcing those standards. Rather than attempting to craft a single set of accounting and reporting standards for all companies throughout the world, the authors advise policymakers to allow competition between the two major sets of standards: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and International Financial Reporting Standards. The authors also believe that the corporate disclosure system needs to be updated to reflect changes in the underlying economy. In particular, they recommend new forms of disclosure for a variety of nonfinancial indicators to better enable investors and analysts to ascertain the source and nature of intangible assets. They also urge policymakers to exploit the advantages of the Internet by encouraging more frequent financial disclosures in a form that will make them more widely accessible and more easily used. |
| enron scandal book: Convictions John Kroger, 2008-04-29 Convictions is a spellbinding story from the front lines of the fight against crime. Most Americans know little about the work of assistant United States attorneys, the federal prosecutors who possess sweeping authority to investigate and prosecute the nation's most dangerous criminals. John Kroger pursued high-profile cases against Mafia killers, drug kingpins, and Enron executives. Starting from his time as a green recruit and ending at the peak of his career, he steers us through the complexities of life as a prosecutor, where the battle in the courtroom is only the culmination of long and intricate investigative work. He reveals how to flip a perp, how to conduct a cross, how to work an informant, how to placate a hostile judge. Kroger relates it all with a novelist's eye for detail and a powerful sense of the ethical conflicts he faces. Often dissatisfied with the system, he explains why our law enforcement policies frequently fail in critical areas like drug enforcement and white-collar crime. He proposes new ways in which we can fight crime more effectively, empowering citizens to pressure their lawmakers to adopt more productive policies. This is an unflinching portrait of a crucial but little-understood part of our justice system, and Kroger is an eloquent guide. |
| enron scandal book: Money Men Dan McCrum, 2022-06-16 'The financial investigation of the decade... Money Men instantly enters the canon of great financial crime books' Bradley Hope, author of The Billion Dollar Whale 'A rip-roaring ride into the underworld of the global economy' Tom Burgis, author of Kleptopia 'Required reading' The Economist 'A cross between the Enron scandal and Rosemary's Baby' John Lanchester, London Review of Books 'Reads like a crime drama' New Statesman 'The culmination of years of careful investigative work... Gripping' Evening Standard 'A thrilling, head-spinning book' Irish Times 'A rollercoaster read that reveals everything that's wrong with our financial system' Catherine Belton Now adapted as the Netflix documentary Skandal!, this is the stranger-than-fiction story of Wirecard, once a $30 billion tech darling, now a smouldering wreck, by the journalist who brought it crashing down - perfect for those who loved Bad Blood and Empire of Pain. When journalist Dan McCrum followed a tip to investigate the hot new tech company challenging Silicon Valley, everything about Wirecard looked a little too good to be true: offices were sprouting up around the world, it was reporting runaway growth and the CEO even wore a black turtleneck in tribute to Steve Jobs. In the space of a few short years, the company had come from nowhere to overtake industry giants like Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank on the stock market. As McCrum dug deeper, he encountered a story stranger and more dangerous than he ever imagined: a world of short sellers and whistleblowers, pornographers and private militias, hackers and spies. Before long he realised that he wasn't the only one in pursuit. Shadowy figures were following him through the streets of London, high-flying lawyers were sending ominous letters to his boss, and he was named as the prime suspect in a criminal inquiry. The race was on to prove his suspicions and clear his name. Money Men is the astonishing true story of Wirecard's multi-billion-dollar fraud, Europe's biggest new tech darling revealed as a house of cards. Uncovering fake bank accounts, fake offices and possibly even a fake death, McCrum offers a searing exposé that will finally lay bare the truth. |
| enron scandal book: Law & Capitalism Curtis J. Milhaupt, Katharina Pistor, 2010-04-15 Recent high-profile corporate scandals—such as those involving Enron in the United States, Yukos in Russia, and Livedoor in Japan—demonstrate challenges to legal regulation of business practices in capitalist economies. Setting forth a new analytic framework for understanding these problems, Law and Capitalism examines such contemporary corporate governance crises in six countries, to shed light on the interaction of legal systems and economic change. This provocative book debunks the simplistic view of law’s instrumental function for financial market development and economic growth. Using comparative case studies that address the United States, China, Germany, Japan, Korea, and Russia, Curtis J. Milhaupt and Katharina Pistor argue that a disparate blend of legal and nonlegal mechanisms have supported economic growth around the world. Their groundbreaking findings show that law and markets evolve together in a “rolling relationship,” and legal systems, including those of the most successful economies, therefore differ significantly in their organizational characteristics. Innovative and insightful, Law and Capitalism will change the way lawyers, economists, policy makers, and business leaders think about legal regulation in an increasingly global market for capital and corporate governance. |
| enron scandal book: Ensuring Corporate Misconduct Tom Baker, Sean J. Griffith, 2011-01-15 Shareholder litigation and class action suits play a key role in protecting investors and regulating big businesses. But Directors and Officers liability insurance shields corporations and their managers from the financial consequences of many illegal acts, as evidenced by the recent Enron scandal and many of last year’s corporate financial meltdowns. Ensuring Corporate Misconduct demonstrates for the first time how corporations use insurance to avoid responsibility for corporate misconduct, dangerously undermining the impact of securities laws. As Tom Baker and Sean J. Griffith demonstrate, this need not be the case. Opening up the formerly closed world of corporate insurance, the authors interviewed people from every part of the industry in order to show the different instances where insurance companies could step in and play a constructive role in strengthening corporate governance—yet currently do not. Ensuring Corporate Misconduct concludes with a set of readily implementable reforms that could significantly rehabilitate the system. |
| enron scandal book: Cold, Hungry and in the Dark Bill Powers, 2013-06-14 An energy industry insider delivers hard truths about the reality of fracking. Conventional wisdom has North America entering a new era of energy abundance thanks to shale gas. But has industry been honest? Cold, Hungry and in the Dark argues that declining productivity combined with increasing demand will trigger a crisis that will cause prices to skyrocket, damage the economy, and have a profound impact on the lives of nearly every North American. Relying on faulty science, bought-and-paid-for-white papers masquerading as independent research and “industry consultants,” the “shale promoters” have vastly overstated the viable supply of shale gas resources for their own financial gain. This startling exposé, written by an industry insider, suggests that the stakes involved in the Enron scandal might seem like lunch money in comparison to the bursting of the natural gas bubble. Exhaustively researched and rigorously documented, Cold, Hungry and in the Dark: · Puts supply-and-demand trends under a microscope · Provides overwhelming evidence of the absurdity of the one hundred-year supply myth · Suggests numerous ways to mitigate the upcoming natural gas price spike The mainstream media has told us that natural gas will be cheap and plentiful for decades, when nothing could be further from the truth. Forewarned is forearmed. Cold, Hungry and in the Dark is vital reading for anyone concerned about the inevitable economic impact of our uncertain energy future. “Powers’s step-by-step dismantling of the abundance myth ought to alarm policymakers, corporate managers, investors, business owners, and concerned citizens alike.”—Kurt Cobb, author of Prelude and contributor to The Christian Science Monitor |
| enron scandal book: Resisting Corporate Corruption Stephen V. Arbogast, 2017-10-12 Presents real world case studies exploring the complex challenges that cause ethical failures and the means available to overcome them with integrity. Resisting Corporate Corruption teaches business ethics in a manner very different from the philosophical and legal frameworks that dominate graduate schools. The book offers twenty-eight case studies and nine essays that cover a full range of business practice, controls and ethics issues. The essays discuss the nature of sound financial controls, root causes of the Financial Crisis, and the evolving nature of whistleblower protections. The cases are framed to instruct students in early identification of ethics problems and how to work such issues within corporate organizations. They also provide would-be whistleblowers with instruction on the challenges they'd face, plus information on the legal protections, and outside supports available should they embark on that course. Some of the cases illustrate how 'The Young are the Most Vulnerable,' i.e. short service employees are most at risk of being sacrificed by an unethical firm. Other cases show the ethical dilemmas facing well-known CEOs and the alternatives they can employ to better combine ethical conduct and sound business strategy. Through these case studies, students should emerge with a practical toolkit that better enables them to follow their moral compass. This third edition to Resisting Corporate Corruption is a must read for all students of American capitalism and specifically anyone considering a career on Wall Street or in public company finance and M&A. —Sherron Watkins, from the Foreword |
| enron scandal book: Saudi America Bethany McLean, 2018 Argues that obtaining energy through the hydraulic fracturing of shale rock is based on unstable economic foundations, and is having much more destructive effects on the economy and the government of the United States than its advocates claim-- |
| enron scandal book: Fiasco Frank Partnoy, 1999-02-01 FIASCO is the shocking story of one man's education in the jungles of Wall Street. As a young derivatives salesman at Morgan Stanley, Frank Partnoy learned to buy and sell billions of dollars worth of securities that were so complex many traders themselves didn't understand them. In his behind-the-scenes look at the trading floor and the offices of one of the world's top investment firms, Partnoy recounts the macho attitudes and fiercely competitive ploys of his office mates. And he takes us to the annual drunken skeet-shooting competition, FIASCO, where he and his colleagues sharpen the killer instincts they are encouraged to use against their competitiors, their clients, and each other. FIASCO is the first book to take on the derivatves trading industry, the most highly charged and risky sector of the stock market. More importantly, it is a blistering indictment of the largely unregulated market in derivatives and serves as a warning to unwary investors about real fiascos, which have cost billions of dollars. |
| enron scandal book: Power Source Sherron Watkins, 2005-10-13 Known as the whistleblower of Enron and one of Time Magazine's Persons of the Year in 2002, Sherron Watkins tells of her journey to find her faith amidst one of corporate America's largest scandals. Find out how a small-town, church-going woman made it big in the corporate world only to find fraud in the company she loved and failure in her own spiritual life. Follow Sherron's story of her immediate thrust into the media and how she survived personal attacks and a Congressional testimony. Power Source also shares the dramatic details of the unraveling of the seventh largest company in the U.S. The drama of greed and loss is heightened by the personal story of the one insider who dared to stand up for what she knew was right in the face of all that was wrong. Her story of surviving, and now thriving, is one of hope and encouragement to all. Includes photos surrounding the scandal. |
| enron scandal book: A Philosophical Investigation Philip Kerr, 2020-07-09 |
Enron - Wikipedia
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was led by Kenneth Lay and developed in 1985 via a merger between …
Enron scandal | Summary, Explained, History, & Facts | Britannica
Apr 25, 2025 · Enron scandal, series of events that resulted in the bankruptcy of the U.S. energy, commodities, and services company Enron Corporation in 2001 and the dissolution of Arthur …
What Was Enron? What Happened and Who Was Responsible - Investopedia
Dec 4, 2024 · Enron was an energy company that became the subject of one of the largest accounting frauds in U.S. history. The company used fraudulent accounting practices to inflate …
Enron — FBI
The collapse of the energy company Enron in December 2001 precipitated what would become the most complex white-collar crime investigation in the FBI’s history.
How the Enron Scandal Changed American Business Forever
In early December 2001, innovative energy company Enron Corporation, a darling of Wall Street investors with $63.4 billion in assets, went bust. It was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Is Enron really back in business sporting a "bold new vision"?
Dec 3, 2024 · "Enron will focus on scalable, sustainable solutions, including investments in renewable energy infrastructure, cutting-edge energy storage and advanced power distribution …
The collapse of Enron and the dark side of business - BBC
Aug 3, 2021 · Just a few months earlier in 2001, this brash Texan energy giant had been exposed for hiding huge losses, and declared bankruptcy. You could have heard a pin drop as former …
Twenty Years Later: The Lasting Lessons of Enron
Apr 5, 2021 · This spring marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the dramatic and cataclysmic demise of Enron Corp. A scandal of exceptional scope and impact, it was (at the …
Enron scandal - Wikipedia
The Enron scandal was an accounting scandal sparked by American energy company Enron Corporation filing for bankruptcy after news of widespread internal fraud became public in …
Enron Scandal - Overview, Role of MTM, Agency Conflicts
Through deceiving accounting tricks, Enron Corporation – the US-based energy, commodities, and services company – was able to trick its investors into thinking that the firm was doing …
Enron - Wikipedia
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was led by Kenneth Lay and developed in 1985 via a merger between …
Enron scandal | Summary, Explained, History, & Facts | Britannica
Apr 25, 2025 · Enron scandal, series of events that resulted in the bankruptcy of the U.S. energy, commodities, and services company Enron Corporation in 2001 and the dissolution of Arthur …
What Was Enron? What Happened and Who Was Responsible - Investopedia
Dec 4, 2024 · Enron was an energy company that became the subject of one of the largest accounting frauds in U.S. history. The company used fraudulent accounting practices to inflate …
Enron — FBI
The collapse of the energy company Enron in December 2001 precipitated what would become the most complex white-collar crime investigation in the FBI’s history.
How the Enron Scandal Changed American Business Forever
In early December 2001, innovative energy company Enron Corporation, a darling of Wall Street investors with $63.4 billion in assets, went bust. It was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Is Enron really back in business sporting a "bold new vision"?
Dec 3, 2024 · "Enron will focus on scalable, sustainable solutions, including investments in renewable energy infrastructure, cutting-edge energy storage and advanced power distribution …
The collapse of Enron and the dark side of business - BBC
Aug 3, 2021 · Just a few months earlier in 2001, this brash Texan energy giant had been exposed for hiding huge losses, and declared bankruptcy. You could have heard a pin drop as former …
Twenty Years Later: The Lasting Lessons of Enron
Apr 5, 2021 · This spring marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the dramatic and cataclysmic demise of Enron Corp. A scandal of exceptional scope and impact, it was (at the …
Enron scandal - Wikipedia
The Enron scandal was an accounting scandal sparked by American energy company Enron Corporation filing for bankruptcy after news of widespread internal fraud became public in …
Enron Scandal - Overview, Role of MTM, Agency Conflicts
Through deceiving accounting tricks, Enron Corporation – the US-based energy, commodities, and services company – was able to trick its investors into thinking that the firm was doing …
