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The Case Analysis of the Scandal of Enron

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www.ccsenet.org/ijbm International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 5,
No. 10; October 2010
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 37
The Case Analysis of the Scandal of Enron
Yuhao Li
Huntsman School of Business, Utah State University, Logan city, U.S.A
E-mail: wyl_2001_ren@126.com, carolee1989@gmail.com
Abstract
The Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, eventually led to the bankruptcy of
the Enron Corporation, an
American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the dissolution of Arthur
Andersen, which was one of
the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world. In addition to
being the largest bankruptcy
reorganization in American history at that time, Enron undoubtedly is the biggest
audit failure. It is ever the most
famous company in the world, but it also is one of companies which fell down too
fast. In this paper, it analysis
the reason for this event in detail including the management, conflict of interest
and accounting fraud.
Meanwhile, it makes analysis the moral responsibility From Individuals Angle and
Corporations Angle.
Keywords: Enron scandal, Accounting fraud, Moral responsibility, Analysis
1. Review of Enron’s Rise and Fall
Throughout the late 1990s, Enron was almost universally considered one of the
country's most innovative
companies -- a new-economy maverick that forsook musty, old industries with
their cumbersome hard assets in
favor of the freewheeling world of e-commerce. The company continued to build
power plants and operate gas

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lines, but it became better known for its unique trading businesses. Besides buying
and selling gas and electricity
futures, it created whole new markets for such oddball "commodities" as broadcast
time for advertisers, weather
futures, and Internet bandwidth.
Enron was founded in 1985, and as one of the world's leading electricity, natural
gas, communications and pulp
and paper companies before it bankrupted in late 2001, its annual revenues rose
from about $9 billion in 1995 to
over $100 billion in 2000. At the end of 2001 it was revealed that its reported
financial condition was sustained
substantially by institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting
fraud. According to Thomas
(2002), the drop of Enron's stock price from $90 per share in mid-2000 to less than
$1 per share at the end of
2001, caused shareholders to lose nearly $11 billion. And Enron revised its financial
statement for the previous
five years and found that there was $586million in losses. Enron fall to bankruptcy
on December 2, 2001.
One of the lessons of the Internet boom is that it's often difficult for analysts to
understand and evaluate new
kinds of businesses. And executives like Mr. Skilling, who once swore at an analyst
during a conference call for
asking a pointed question about Enron's balance sheet, don't do much to foster the
kind of open inquiry that
could lead to better information.
But the Enron debacle is also emblematic of another problem that has become all
too evident in the last few
years: Wall Street's loss of objectivity. Investment banks make far more money from
underwriting or merger

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www.ccsenet.org/ijbm International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 5, No. 10; October 2010 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 37 The Case Analysis of the Scandal of Enron Yuhao Li Huntsman School of Business, Utah State University, Logan city, U.S.A E-mail: wyl_2001_ren@126.com, carolee1989@gmail.com Abstract The Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world. In addition to being the largest bankruptcy reorganization in American history at that time, Enron undoubtedly is the biggest audit failure. It is ever the most famous company in the world, but it also is one of companies which fell down too fast. In this paper, it analysis the reason for this event in detail including the management, conflict of interest and accounting fraud. Meanwhile, it makes analysis the moral responsibility From Individuals’ Angle and Corporation’s Angle. Keywords: Enron scandal, Accounting fraud, Moral responsibility, Analysis 1. Review of Enron’s Rise and Fall Throughout the late 1990s, Enron was almost universally considered one of the country's most innovative companies -- a new-economy maverick that forsook musty, old industries with their cumbersome hard assets in favor of the freewheeling world of e-commerce. The company continued t ...
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