“ Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling Resentenced to 168 Months for Fraud, Conspiracy Charges.” “ Federal Jury Convicts Former Enron Chief Executives Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling on Fraud, Conspiracy and Related Charges.” “ SEC Statement Regarding Andersen Case Conviction.”Ĭornell Law School, Legal Information Institute. Causey,” Pages 29–38.Įnron Creditors Recovery Corp., via Internet Archive. Fastow, Former Enron Chief Financial Officer, Pleads Guilty, Settles Civil Fraud Charges and Agrees to Cooperate with Ongoing Investigation.” Securities and Exchange Commission Roundtable on Hedge Funds: Panel Discussion: “Hedge Fund Strategies and Market Participation”.” “ Long-Term Capital Management: Regulators Need to Focus Greater Attention on Systemic Risk.” “ Enron and the Use and Abuse of Special Purpose Entities in Corporate Structures.” “ Former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Securities and Wire Fraud, Agrees to Cooperate with Enron Investigation.”ĭuke Law Scholarship Repository, via University of Cincinnati Law Review. “ Two Enron Executives Charged with Fraud, Conspiracy and False Statements.” “ CFTC Charges Enron with Price Manipulation and Other Illegal Acts.” “ Financial Oversight of Enron: The SEC and Private-Sector Watchdogs,” ( of PDF).įederal Reserve Bank of St. Senate, Committee on Governmental Affairs. Louis, FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data). “ Enron Corporation.”įederal Reserve Bank of St. “ Report of Investigation of Enron Corporation and Related Entities Regarding Federal Tax and Compensation Issues, and Policy Recommendations,” Pages 77 and 84 (Pages 99 and 106 of PDF). Congress, Joint Committee on Taxation, via Internet Archive.
Enron’s new, unregulated power auction led to revenues at its Wholesale Services business quadrupling to $48.4 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2001 compared with the year-ago period. As Enron was one of the main players in such market manipulation, its energy traders were able to sell power at multiples of normal peak power prices. Subsequent investigations by state and federal officials concluded that power generators and power marketers intentionally withheld electricity to create artificial shortages and increase the cost of power. After the bill was passed, California endured an acute electricity shortage that caused as many as 38 rolling blackouts by June 2001, compared with only one in the six-month period preceding the bill. It is hard to look at your life’s work and say, “It’s failed.” But you have to take a long cold look at yourself and say, “Who was I? Who did I become?” And realize, you may have seen your shadow.In December 2000, a bill that deregulated energy commodity trading in California was passed, allowing Enron to operate an unregulated power auction called EnronOnline that rapidly gained control over a large share of the state’s electricity and natural gas market.
#ENRON THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM TRANSCRIPT DOCUMENTARY FULL#
What is then required of us, who endeavor to change the world, to have great dreams and visions, to envision the future full of possibilities?Ī lot of who Cliff was was tied up in how he had succeeded at Enron. The reference to the Milgram Experiment as a potential lens through which to view what happened at Enron.“There is a fusion of responsibility,” and it can happen again. That there was “synergistic corruption.” It wasn’t just Enron, but other banks that did not keep the players accountable.How they created a “new economic religion.”.The role of Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene, and having a very Darwinian view of the world.Jeff Skilling’s statement, “I’m F*cking smart.”.The SEC’s compliance in “ Mark to Market” accounting.And so it’s like taking so much promise and possibility and looking at it in the mirror and seeing the flip side reflected back at you. And over time they became victims of their own hubris, victims of their own greed. It started with a lot of people who thought they were changing the world. Looking at Enron is like looking at the flip side of so much possibility, because like most thing that end terribly, it didn’t start out that way. Perhaps the quote that is most haunting is by Bethany McLean, Enron, therefore, is not just the poster child for what went wrong back then, but is yet another exemplar of the human depravity that lurks within us all, and how that sin (yes, let’s call it “sin”) plays out in business.
In light of the recent news emerging out of the Volkswagen emissions scandal, it seems as if corporate malfeasance, greed, loopholes, and hubris are still alive and well. Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, 2005 Īnd what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? – Matthew 16:26 (NLT)