Enron Corporation, a major American energy company, collapsed in 2001 after widespread accounting fraud became public. Using deceptive practices including mark-to-market accounting and off-balance-sheet special purpose entities, its executives concealed billions of dollars in debt from failed projects. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, at the time the largest corporate bankruptcy in United States history. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
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Associated With
The 2001 collapse of Enron, enabled by off-balance-sheet accounting and audit failures, became accounting practice's defining case study in fraud and drove the Sarbanes-Oxley Act's overhaul of financial reporting requirements.
Source Wikipedia, Enron Scandal
Source Wikipedia, Enron Scandal
The company this 2001 scandal and bankruptcy destroyed.
Lay was the central executive figure in the scandal, convicted in 2006 on multiple counts of conspiracy and fraud.
Source Wikipedia, Kenneth Lay
Source Wikipedia, Kenneth Lay
Companies Involved
Source Wikipedia, Enron
Sources
1. Wikipedia, Enron Scandal
WikipediaLead sectionQuote, Lead section
on December 2, 2001, Enron filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
Wikipedia, Enron
WikipediaBankruptcy and aftermath section
Enron filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001.
- Companies Involved: Enron Corporation
View the Source Wikipedia, Kenneth Lay
Wikipedia- Associated With: Kenneth Lay, scandal section, conviction
- Associated With: Kenneth Lay, Lead section
View the Source Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Associated With: Kenneth Lay
Some accounts place the technical center of the fraud on Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow rather than on Lay: Fastow directed the off-books partnerships that concealed Enron's losses and personally profited from them, and is the figure prosecutors identified as having created and manipulated the scheme. Fastow nonetheless received the lightest sentence of Enron's top three (six years, after cooperating with prosecutors), while Lay, as chairman and chief executive, and Skilling, as chief executive, were held primarily accountable as the company's leadership and received the two convictions and the far longer sentence respectively.
A dissenting reading, from an independent laneWikipedia, Enron, Wikipedia
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Enron file for bankruptcy?
December 2, 2001.
Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on December 2, 2001, which was at the time the largest bankruptcy filing in United States history.
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