...THE ENRON COLLAPSE The Androids Under Attack case was similar to the case of Enron Corporation. It was formed in 1985 from a merger of Houston Natural Gas and Internorth, Enron Corp. was the first nationwide natural gas pipeline network. Over time, the firm’s business focus shifted from the regulated transportation of natural gas to unregulated energy trading markets. The guiding principle seems to have been that there was more money to be made in buying and selling financial contracts linked to the value of energy assets that in actual ownership of physical assets. Until late 2001, nearly all observers including professional Wall Street analysts regarded this transformation as an outstanding success. Enron’s reported annual revenues grew from under $10 billion in the early 1009s to $101 billion in 2000, ranking it seventh on the Fortune 500. Starting in August 2001, when CEO Jeffrey Skilling resigned for no reasons, October 16, Enron reported its first quarterly loss in 4 years, taking charge against the earnings of $1 billion for poorly performing businesses. The reported third quarter loss was $618 million with the profit of $292 million a year earlier. On November 8, the company announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing that it was restating its earnings since 1997 which had reducing them by $586 million. The coup-de-grace came on November 28, when major bond rating agencies downgraded Enron’s debt to below-investment-grade, or junk bond status. The...
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...27-48 ENRON AND ARTHUR ANDERSEN: THE CASE OF THE CROOKED E AND THE FALLEN A Gary M. Cunningham Visiting Professor Department of Business Administration Åbo Akademi University Turku, Finland Jean E. Harris Accounting Department Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg Campus School of Business Administration Middletown, Pennsylvania USA ABSTRACT Outside the US, the failures of Enron and Arthur Andersen remain puzzles. How could the accounting and audit failures associated with Enron and Arthur Andersen happen in the US where auditing is sophisticated, accounting principles are strong, and disclosure is emphasized? This is a teaching case for persons outside the US to review the financial reporting and auditing issues related to Enron and to explain the regulation of accounting and auditing in the US. It has broad implications for corporate governance and accounting regulation in other countries as well. n the years after the Enron Corporation declared bankruptcy in 2001 and Arthur Andersen failed in 2002, people are still asking, especially those outside the US, how could this happen? What went wrong? The US has a well-developed set of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) that requires extensive disclosures in audited financial statements, and a well-established federal agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that monitors financial reporting. This case is written for accounting students and others, who are outside the US, to explore the financial reporting...
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...The Rise and Collapse of Enron: Financial Innovation, Errors and Lessons Elisa S. Moncarz* Raúl Moncarz* Alejandra Cabello** Benjamin Moncarz*** Abstract Recent collapses of high profile business failures like Enron, Worldcom, Parmlat, and Tyco has been a subject of great debate among regulators, investors, government and academics in the recent past. Enron’s case was the greatest failure in the history of American capitalism and had a major impact on financial markets by causing significant losses to investors. Enron was a company ranked by Fortune as the most innovative company in the United States; it exemplified the transition from the production to the knowledge economy. Many lessons can we learn from its collapse. In this paper we present an analysis of the factors that contributed to Enron’s rise and failure, underlying the role that energy deregulation and manipulation of financial statements played on Enron’s demise. We summarize some lessons that can be learned in order to prevent another Enron and restore confidence in the financial markets, as well as in the accounting and auditing professions. Keywords: Enron, Corporate Ethics, Corporate Bankruptcy, Creative Accounting. Introduction T he rise and fall of high profile businesses like Enron, WorldCom, Parmlat and Tyco has been a subject of great debate and research among regulators, investors, government and academics in the recent years. Enron, for one, was the greatest failure *Professor-investigator...
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...27-48 ENRON AND ARTHUR ANDERSEN: THE CASE OF THE CROOKED E AND THE FALLEN A Gary M. Cunningham Visiting Professor Department of Business Administration Åbo Akademi University Turku, Finland Jean E. Harris Accounting Department Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg Campus School of Business Administration Middletown, Pennsylvania USA ABSTRACT Outside the US, the failures of Enron and Arthur Andersen remain puzzles. How could the accounting and audit failures associated with Enron and Arthur Andersen happen in the US where auditing is sophisticated, accounting principles are strong, and disclosure is emphasized? This is a teaching case for persons outside the US to review the financial reporting and auditing issues related to Enron and to explain the regulation of accounting and auditing in the US. It has broad implications for corporate governance and accounting regulation in other countries as well. n the years after the Enron Corporation declared bankruptcy in 2001 and Arthur Andersen failed in 2002, people are still asking, especially those outside the US, how could this happen? What went wrong? The US has a well-developed set of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) that requires extensive disclosures in audited financial statements, and a well-established federal agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that monitors financial reporting. This case is written for accounting students and others, who are outside the US, to explore the financial reporting...
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...Only months before Enron Corp.’s bankruptcy filing in December 2001, the firm was widely regarded as one of the most innovative, fastest growing, and best managed businesses in the United States. With the swift collapse, shareholders, including thousands of Enron workers who held company stock in their 401(k) retirement accounts, lost tens of billions of dollars. Investigations of wrongdoing may take years to conclude, but Enron’s failure already raises financial oversight issues with wider applications. Why didn’t the watchdogs bark? This report briefly examines the accounting system that failed to provide a clear picture of the firm’s true condition, the independent auditors and board members who were unwilling to challenge Enron’s management, the Wall Street stock analysts and bond raters who missed the trouble ahead, the rules governing employer stock in company pension plans, and the unregulated energy derivatives trading that was the core of Enron’s business. The report will be updated regularly as further reliable information about Enron’s downfall – which is now extremely limited – becomes available. Other contributors to this report include Bob Lyke, Patrick Purcell, and Gary Shorter. Formed in 1985 from a merger of Houston Natural Gas and Internorth, Enron Corp. was the first nationwide natural gas pipeline network. Over time, the firm’s business focus shifted from the regulated transportation of natural gas to unregulated energy trading markets. The...
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...INTERNAL AUDITING MOVIE REVIEW: Enron Movie: The Smartest Guy in the Room Tutor: Ms. Bewry March 29, 2014 Ashley Johnson-Blake ID #100426 Review Questions 1. Identify at least five (5) control issues in the movie using the Committee of Sponsoring Organization of the Treadway Commission (COSO) framework as a guide. According to COSO, the five control issues are concerned with the control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication and monitoring. Based on the documentary several control issues were observed. They were: * During the Enron oil scandal aka the Valhalla scandal there was significant misappropriation of monies. In this particular situation instead of reducing risk lay encouraged traders to keep gambling more. Traders gambled away all of Enron’s reserves and this was covered up by Muckleroy who was able to bluff the market by acting quickly. * Ken Lay didn’t listen to auditors’ reports that the two rogue traders should be fired, this demonstrated one angle of lack of a good management style and monitoring. Instead lay read the report and read his budget and estimated how much the rogue executives made and if they were fired what he could lose. With all of this in mind lay did not fire the executives and had been described as a guy that puts earnings before scruples rather than reacting to the dishonesty in front of him. * Ken Lay as CEO of Enron made the statement that he is not responsible for things he didn’t...
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...Enron Corporation was established in 1985 by Ken Lay after merging Houston Natural Gas and Internorth, it has more than 20,000 employees and it's one of the seven largest electricity, natural gas company. Before it went to bankruptcy, Enron claimed revenues of almost $101 billion in 2000, placed Enron at sixth on the Fortune Global 500, it also named "America's most innovative company" for the past six years(1996-2001). In 10/22/2001, The "street.com website pronounced a message revealed the complex financial transaction between Enron and Osprey Co., through Osprey, Enron debited 340 billion dollars"○1 which never appeared in the financial statement. At the same time, SEC began to investigate Enron, thus, the Enron's accounting scandal finally above the water. The first person who became the whistleblower disclosure Enron's financial fraud was Watkins and Cooper, although the CFO asked cooper to postpone her investigation, Cooper still doing her audit to alert the board about the financial statement problems, at the meantime, Watkins outlined the problems in a memo to Ken Lay, "but by the time Watkins and Cooper blew the whistle, much damage had already been done and the shareholders and employees were the ultimate losers."○2 Whistleblower program is very important to minimum a corporation's hazardous activities, but the blower often face some awkward situations, such as fear of the manager's retaliation, fear to be treat as a betrayer by the workmates, unwilling to be...
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...Enron Company James Miles September 28, 2014 ENRON COMPANY FRAUD Based on the findings from milestone one, it is clear that Enron Company experienced an accounting fraud resulting in a spectacular bankruptcy. This was brought about by the accounting fraud made by the accounting firm. An accountant may face accounting dilemma of reporting any accounting violation to the financial accounting body of a company. It is an ethical duty for an accountant to report any such violations but also the dilemma arises on whether to report any uncertain mistake in the accounts. In the case of Enron Company the mistake was done by the accounting firm and the involved CEO was Jeff Skilling. According to legal and ethical issues of accounting fraud, government review of company financial records caused by an accounting scandal could cause the company’s rapid decline and can also lead to the layoff of thousands of employees and we can see from the Enron Company that it dropped its shares from $90 to $0.50 which brought loss to employees and a big financial loss to the investors who had saved their money in the Enron Company. From the legal ethical issues, executives and other corporate officers can also face criminal prosecution, leading to heavy fines and prison time as seen from the case where the scandal resulted in penalty of CEO Jeff Skilling. Jeff Skilling was sent to prison for 24 years for engaging in accounting fraud for the financial collapse of the company. Arthur was not charged...
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...January 13, 2015 Instructor Ashram Chooniedass Ethic Business Paper Enron started out in 1985 as a merger between InterNorth and Houston Gas Company, the company’s innovation leads to huge success. By 2000 Enron announce revenue of one hundred million dollars in profit. This huge increase was due to the trading energy sector of the company, shortly after it announced that Enron had become the sixth largest energy company in the world. In 1996 Jeffery Skilling became the new CEO while In 2001 Kenneth Lay held the title of chairman of the board. Skilling made it very clear that his focus is on revenue and profit increase margin and had no interest in Enron’s cash flow (Houston Chronicle, 2002). Skilling created a competitive atmosphere driven by huge bonuses, under his leadership the human resources department provided cheat sheet to recruiters to hire individuals who portray the image of sharp-dressing extrovert. They focus on graduates from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Rice, Northwestern, and other leading universities. (Houston Chronicle, 2002). Unethical behavior such a falsifying transaction to boost volume was done by traders frequently, hide huge losses from shareholders, they encourage employees to buy stocks and discourage them from reporting poor accounting practices. Enron issue had brought a lot of businesses down due to the unethical actions that took place in that organization. Enron, an energy firm in Texas, it was a company of high demands and a success to...
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...Enron Corporation (Case 1.1) Most of us work from rags to riches but this is not the case of the Enron Corporation. Instead of becoming the nation’s greatest company, Enron instead laid claim to being the largest corporate bankruptcy in the history. The greediness and egotism wiped out the honesty and integrity that should instill on the persons who were involved in this case. Arthur Edward Andersen built his firm, Arthur Andersen & Company, into one of the largest and most respected accounting firms in the world through his reputation for honesty and integrity. His motto was “Think straight, talk straight” and he insisted that his clients adopt that same attitude when preparing and issuing their periodic financial statements. Arthur Andersen’s auditing philosophy was not rule-based; instead he invoked a substance-over-form approach to auditing and accounting issues. He avidly believed that the primary role of the auditor was to ensure that clients reported fully and honestly to the public, regardless of the consequences for those clients. Ironically, Arthur Andersen & Co.’s dramatic fall from eminence resulted from its association with a client known for aggressive and innovative uses of “accounting gimmicks” to window dress its financial statements. Enron Corporation was the second largest client of the firm and was involved in large, complex transactions with hundreds of special purpose entities (SPEs) that it used to obscure its true financial condition and...
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...Introduction In the case of Accounting for Enron, the scandal of Enron was revealed in October 2001 and eventually led to the largest bankruptcy in American History at the time. Enron, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the dissolution of Arthur Anderson, which was one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world. Enron collapsed in large part because of unethical practices of its top officials; they abused their power and manipulated information, and put their own interests above those of their employees and the public. Examining the ethical and social responsibilities of Enron and lessons learned from the collapse will be reviewed. Analysis To better understand the company’s collapse, is to start by understanding the roles of Enron and Arthur Andersen and their top leaders. Enron was founded in 1985, and was one of the world’s leading electricity, natural gas, communication and pulp and paper companies before it bankrupted in late 2001 (Arnold, Beauchamp, Bowie, 2013). Independent stock analysts and journalists publicly raised questions about the value of Enron’s stock. Enron’s stock was trading at more than $80 a share, and Enron’s CEO, Jeffery Skilling was claiming that is should be valued at more than $100 a share. In October 2001, the Arthur Andersen auditing firm reversed their previous decisions and restated Enron’s financial situations. Arthur Andersen was once one of the “Big Five” accounting firms and was driven...
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...ENRON- A Study of FAILURES Who, How, Why! Arthur Gudikunst, Ph.D. Revised: April, 2003 Professor of Finance Finance Department Bryant College Introduction: The saga of the ENRON Corporation has been unfolding in the media for well over a year. In the span of only three years, ENRON has gone from public and professional acclaim of the company and its senior executives to scorn, infamy and bankruptcy. Its public auditing firm, Arthur Andersen, has basically been destroyed, as well as publicly disgraced. Tens of thousands of employees and investors have been emotionally and financially affected. Major financial services firms in banking, securities brokerage and insurance have been, and may yet be, drawn into the legal battles regarding who is to blame for the ENRON failure. Overview of ENRON: The following timeline for ENRON is presented to set the major milestones for the company: July 1985- Houston Natural Gas merges with InterNorth to form ENRON, as an interstate natural gas pipeline company. Kenneth Lay is CEO. 1989- ENRON starts trading natural gas commodities and commodity derivative financial contracts. 1994- ENRON begins trading electricity as a commodity and related financial derivative contracts. Jeffrey Skilling is executive in charge of this new business venture. Nov. 1999- EnronOnline is launched as a web site for the global trading of energy commodities and derivative contracts. Jeffrey Skilling leads this continued transformation...
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...can be controlled on the way they conduct business through the instruction of auditing, corporate governance, and financial reporting. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act came about due to the issues with Enron. Enron was an organization founded based on two companies: InterNorth and Houston Natural Gas. Enron grew rapidly in the United States and maintained strong globally. Even through Enron progressed, the executives became greedy. Days before Enron announced a $618 million loss over the third quarter, the company’s accountants told workers to destroy all audit material and keep the basic work documents. Because of this, workers suing Enron for lost retirement savings were denied all of the backup paperwork to support their claims against Enron. Enron’s accounting firm reminded employees of the document destruction process prior to the subpoenas issued by the Security and Exchange Commission. There is speculation that documents were being destroyed even after the subpoenas were issued. Accounting firms are to use a retention policy, and any intentional destruction of a document that could be subpoenaed is illegal. The accounting for a company like Enron is complex. Enron fell so fast and took with its’ destruction jobs and pensions of hundreds of workers and loss on millions for investors. Shell companies, who partnered with Enron, were able to allow Enron to profit and keep millions of debit off of their books. Once the word was out about...
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...January 13, 2015 Instructor Ashram Chooniedass Ethic Business Paper Enron started out in 1985 as a merger between InterNorth and Houston Gas Company, the company’s innovation leads to huge success. By 2000 Enron announce revenue of one hundred million dollars in profit. This huge increase was due to the trading energy sector of the company, shortly after it announced that Enron had become the sixth largest energy company in the world. In 1996 Jeffery Skilling became the new CEO while In 2001 Kenneth Lay held the title of chairman of the board. Skilling made it very clear that his focus is on revenue and profit increase margin and had no interest in Enron’s cash flow (Houston Chronicle, 2002). Skilling created a competitive atmosphere driven by huge bonuses, under his leadership the human resources department provided cheat sheet to recruiters to hire individuals who portray the image of sharp-dressing extrovert. They focus on graduates from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Rice, Northwestern, and other leading universities. (Houston Chronicle, 2002). Unethical behavior such a falsifying transaction to boost volume was done by traders frequently, hide huge losses from shareholders, they encourage employees to buy stocks and discourage them from reporting poor accounting practices. Enron issue had brought a lot of businesses down due to the unethical actions that took place in that organization. Enron, an energy firm in Texas, it was a company of high demands and a success to...
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...STUDY:- Once the seventh largest company in America, Enron was formed in 1985 when InterNorth acquired Houston Natural Gas. The company branched into many non-energy-related fields over the next several years, including such areas as Internet bandwidth, risk management, and weather derivatives (a type of weather insurance for seasonal businesses). Although their core business remained in the transmission and distribution of power their phenomenal growth was occurring through their other interests. Fortune Magazine selected Enron as "America's most innovative company" for six straight years from 1996 to 2001. Then came the investigations into their complex network of off-shore partnerships and accounting practices The saga of the ENRON Corporation has been unfolding in the media for well over a year. In the span of only three years, ENRON has gone from public and professional acclaim of the company and its senior executives to scorn, infamy and bankruptcy. Its public auditing firm, Arthur Andersen, has basically been destroyed, as well as publicly disgraced. Tens of thousands of employees and investors have been emotionally and financially affected. Major financial services firms in banking, securities brokerage and insurance have been, and may yet be, drawn into the legal battles regarding who is to blame for the ENRON failure. Enron grew wealthy due largely to marketing, promoting power, and its high stock price. Enron was named "America's Most Innovative Company" by Fortune...
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