ENRON: A FINANCIAL REPORTING FAILURE? Anthony H. Catanach Jr.1 Associate Professor 610-519-4825 anthony.catanach@villanova.edu and Shelley Rhoades-Catanach Associate Professor Both at Villanova University College of Commerce and Finance Department of Accountancy INTRODUCTION The dramatic collapse of Enron Corporation‚ following a series of disclosures of accounting improprieties‚ has led many to question the soundness of current accounting and financial reporting standards. Within Enron’s reported
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Introduction 2 2. History 3 a. Formation 3 b. Operations 3 c. The Success 4 d. All that glitters is not gold 4 e. The Fraud 4 3. Products 5 4. Enron Scandal – The Company Fraud 8 f. What Happed? 8 5. Techniques used in the Company Fraud 9 g. Revenue Recognition 9 h. Mark-to-market accounting 9 i. Special Purpose Entities 10 j. Executive
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Abstract - The Enron scandal is one of the biggest financial scams ever to take place and its root’s lie in the desire of the senior members of Enron to earn as much for themselves as possible and were assisted in this greatly by the negligence shown by their auditor’s and consultants‚ Arthur Andersen. Most of the debts and tangible assets of Enron were on the balance sheet of partnerships that were run by high-ranking officials within the corporation and these partnerships were recorded as related
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The Smartest Guys in the Room It was a profound story happened between two giant companies‚ both of which once marked as one of the greatest companies for decades in the American History. Enron‚ started as Northern natural Gas Company in 1930‚ creatively making its way through the Great Depression by opening up the natural gas market with its lower cost and developing extensive pipeline network with the unlimited low-cost labor resource‚ fell apart due to its creative use of the SPEs and related
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it was the "Greed Factor" which drives Enron employees to increase the profits through unethical methods‚ and ultimately causing its downfall. But could it be the opposite? I mean‚ could it be that it was Enron ’s culture and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)‚ which is to increase the profits and share price that "forced" Enron employees behave in an unethical manner? What circumstances caused them to be unethical‚ really? At first‚ the leader of Enron Finance Corp‚ Jeffrey Skilling recruited
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Reaction Paper on Enron Case September 9‚ 2013 Summary: Enron’s origins date back to 1985 when it began life as an interstate pipeline company through the merger of Houston Natural Gas and Omaha-based InterNorth. Kenneth Lay‚ the former chief executive officer of Houston Natural Gas‚ became CEO‚ and the next year won the post of chairman. From the pipeline sector‚ Enron began moving into new fields. In 1999‚ the company launched its broadband services unit and Enron Online‚ the company’s website
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REACTION PAPER – THE ENRON SCANDAL FACTS OF THE CASE Enron Corporation was formed in 1985‚ led by Kenneth Lay‚ as a result from the merger of Houston Natural Gas and Internorth that specializes in natural gases and commodities. In 1990‚ the company hires Jeffrey Skilling to lead the trading of commodities under deregulated market and Andrew Fastow later that year (USA Today‚ 2002). Deregulation of the energy markets allowed companies to place bets on future prices‚ and Enron was poised to take
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Enron Case The internal controls that were ignored when LJM1 was created were one‚ LJM’s books were kept separate from Enron’s. LJM1 ignored some of Enron’s entries in the books that were missing. Outsiders owned less than 3% of the Special Purpose Entities equities. There was an error made by Arthur Andersen to let LJM’s financial statement to remain unconsolidated. If the financial statements had been consolidated‚ some of the errors could have been found. They may have even had some time to correct
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Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room A white-collar crime by definition is a crime that is committed by individuals of higher status. It is not necessarily a violent crime‚ but could be depending on the situation. An individual who works in a professional environment‚ such as the government or corporation tend to take advantage of employees and manipulate them into thinking their practices are legitimate. Some examples‚ of white-collar crimes include fraud‚ embezzlement‚ insider trading‚ and other
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Part B: What role did the CFO play in creating the problems that led to Enron’s financial problems? In order to prevent the losses from appearing on its financial statements‚ Enron used questionable accounting practices. To misrepresent its true financial condition‚ Andrew Fastow‚ the Enron’s CFO‚ takes his role involving unconsolidated partnerships and “special purpose entities”‚ which would later become known as the LJM partnership. Taking advantage from the SPEs’s main purpose‚ which provided
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