Enron and WorldCom FIN/486 December 22‚ 2014 Enron and WorldCom In 1998‚ Waste Management executives acknowledged earnings misstatements of approximately $1.7 billion. With the help of the Arthur Anderson accounting firm‚ Waste Management shareholders lost more than $6 billion dollars (CNN‚ 2001). The Waste Management corruption ushered in a series of corporate scandals into the new millennium. Enron and WorldCom were only two of many ethical and accounting violations that prompted new legislation
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problems of the Enron Scandal The main problem of the Enron scandal was that they committed business fraud. This is what the root problem of the company was. The sad thing about the Enron scandal was that approximately 22‚000 men and women lost their jobs. Not only did it affect the people who worked for the company but the problem was that it also affected other accounting firms that worked directly with Enron‚ for example the company Arthur Anderson went under because of the Enron scandal and this
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The Enron scandal A brief on Enron’s history Enron was formed in 1985 by Kenneth Lay after merging Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth. In the early 1990s‚ he helped to initiate the selling of electricity at market prices‚ The resulting markets made it possible for traders such as Enron to sell energy at higher prices‚ thereby significantly increasing its revenue. As Enron became the largest seller of natural gas in North America by 1992‚ Enron pursued a diversification strategy
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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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Enron Scandal In 1985‚ Enron was formed by Kenneth Lay after the merging of Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth. In the 1990s‚ Lay helped to initiate the selling of electricity at market prices. Markets made it easier for Enron to sell energy at higher prices‚ which caused the company to get richer. Enron was the largest merchant of natural gas in 1992. In November 1999‚ the creation of EnronOnline enabled Enron to develop‚ negotiate and manage its trading business. By 2001‚ Enron became a
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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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What were the business risks enron faced‚ and how did those risks increase the likelihood of material misstatements in enron’s financial statement Enron faces most of the risk ordinarily faced by any energy company‚ including price instability and foreign currency risks. Enron operated in many different areas of the world with different regulatory and political risks. Enron faced business risks such as a complex business model‚ extensive use of derivatives and special purpose entities‚ aggressive
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The overall cause for Enron’s bankruptcy should be blamed on former chairman and CEO‚ Kenneth Lay. As an Enron executive‚ all of Lay’s concerns should have been focused on Enron’s profits‚ but all he cared about was his property. When he noticed Enron’s financial problem‚ he did not attempt to fix it‚ but made effort to maintain his own benefit and ignored the whole company’s and investors’ loss. His selfish and unethical behavior not only deceived the investors but also finally resulted in Enron’s
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Introduction Enron was one of America’s leading companies prior to its spectacular collapse in 2001. It was frequently named as one of America’s top 10 most admired corporations and best places to work‚ and its board was acclaimed one of the US’ best five‚ according to Fortune magazine. As America’s seventh largest company‚ Enron experienced explosive growth through the 1990s. It had revenues of US$139 ($184) billion‚ US$62 ($82) billion in assets and employed more than 30‚000 people across 20
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Enron History Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) were used and often abused by most large corporations in the late 1990’s. Enron was likely the corporation that abused the accounting treatment the most‚ but certainly not the only one. The Enron SPEs were not hidden from the auditors or the investing public‚ but were so extensive‚ invasive‚ and complex that no one‚ including primary architect‚ Andrew Fastow‚ was able to understand the total implications. The 2000 financial statements for Enron included
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