ENRON Assignment
ENRON Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and
services company based in Huston, Texas. During 2000 Enron claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion. At the time, Fortune Magazine had named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years.
ENRON painted a rosy picture of strong profits and a healthy business. But as the facts began to tumble out, in the fall of 2001, the company swiftly collapsed, taking with it the fortunes and retirement savings of thousands of employees.
At the end of 2001, it was revealed that ENRON'S reported financial condition was sustained by creatively planned accounting fraud. ENRON has since become a well-known example of willful corporate fraud and corruption. The scandal also brought into question the accounting practices and activities of many corporations in the United States and was a factor in the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, raising the bar for accounting and financial regulations.
The company's downfall was due to the unethical business practices of not one but many key players. While the CEO and CFO are probably the best known of the Enron characters, there were many others who played supporting roles. Some have admitted to helping artificially increase profits and hide losses and debts. Others blew the whistle on the deceptions. Listed below are some key participates but not the only ones.
- Kenneth Lay
- Jeffrey Skilling
- Andrew S. Fastow
- Ben F. Glisan Jr.
- Rick Causey
- Sherron S. Watkins
Select one of the key participants in the ENRON Scandal noted 
above. Research and write about the company of ENRON. After summarizing a brief history of the incident/scandal you are to identify your person's role in the scandal and explain their actions, or inactions, which contributed to the cover up of unethical accounting practices and business activities, which lead to the company's demise.
Questions to consider:
- What exactly happened??
- What was their role in the business?
- What was their role in the concealment of fraudulent accounting and business practices?
- What was their reason for acting as they did? What was their motivation?
- What was the benefit that offset the risk of their illegal or unethical action(s)?
- Did they think they were doing more good than bad?
- How were things concealed for so long with no one questioning the unethical business practices?
Paper will be graded on factual information, grammar and content.
- Minimum 3 page paper explaining the case and person
- Minimum of 3 references
- Citations should be referenced in the document as used or at the end.
- Minimal citation required (citation page is not included in page count)
- 1.5 Line Spacing
- 12 Font (Ariel or Times New Roman)
- 1" borders
- Microsoft Word Format
For instructions on how to create APA 7th edition citations, please see the APA Citations page.
