...Enron Corp.: Credit Sensitive Notes Solution Posted on January 28, 2013 by admin — No Comments ↓ This case investigates an innovative bond issue by Enron. The coupon on the bond is indexed to the company’s credit rating, making it a credit derivative structure.« Hide by Sanjiv Das, Stephen Lynagh Source: Harvard Business School 16 pages. Publication date: Feb 28, 1997. Prod. #: 297099-PDF-ENG Case Study 2 – Enron and Arthur Andersen Enron Corporation Case Study 2 – Enron and Arthur Andersen Enron Corporation began as a small natural gas distributor and over the course of 15 years grew to become the seventh largest company in the United States. Soon after the federal deregulation of natural gas pipelines in 1985, Enron was born by the merging of Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, a Nebraska pipeline company. Initially, Enron was merely involved in the distribution of gas, but it later became a market maker in facilitating the buying and selling of futures of natural gas, electricity, broadband, and other products. However, Enron’s continuous growth eventually came to an end as a complicated financial statement fraud and multiple scandals sent Enron through a downward spiral to bankruptcy. During the 1980s several major national energy corporations began lobbying Washington to deregulate the energy business. Their claim was that the extra competition resulting from a deregulated market would benefit both businesses and consumers. Consequently, the national government began...
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...pipeline decided to merge to form The Enron Corporation. Enron was once the seventh largest publicly-held corporation in the nation. The purpose of this case study is to first research how the corporate leaders at Enron, who are so smart, managed to display such poor judgment. Secondly, answer the question: What do you see as the contributing factors to the demise of corporate giants like Enron, World Com, TYCO, Arthur Andersen, and others? This case study will identify at least three, and explain how their poor judgment contributed to their demise. Also in this case study I will address the questions: What might possibly happen when a corporation is placed in an oversight role of a business partner? One example of this was Arthur Andersen serving as Enron's auditor. How might a corporation ensure that this does not happen? What risks are involved if an individual decides to blow the whistle on unethical behavior within their company or institution? Are they really protected by law? The corporate leaders at Enron although smart managed to make poor decisions first by falsely reporting net income and cash flow. “Enron claimed a net income of $979 million in that year, it earned $42 million” (Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2015). Enron could also be defined as a cooperation with an arrogant culture, which “Enron executives believed competitors had no chance against it” (Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2015). Enron had a belief that its employees were...
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...about the Enron Corporation and Arthur Anderson. This assignment is to identify the background of Enron and Arthur Anderson and Enron fail. Other than that, identify the business risks that faced by Enron. Moreover, determine the responsibilities of board of directors and steps to improve corporate governance. Besides that, differentiated between rules-based accounting and principle-based accounting and the uses. In addition, there are discussion about auditor should allowed to provide non-audit services. There are also critical discussion on the reason audit partners struggle with making tough accounting decisions and a good recommendation of changes to be made. 1.0 Background of Enron Corporation and Arthur Anderson and fall Of Enron. 1.1 Background of Enron Corporation Enron was established in the middle of a recession in 1985, when Kenneth Lay CEO of Houston Natural Gas Company (HNG), persuaded a joining among Inter North Incorporate (Peterson). There was a young consultant named Jeffrey Skilling who had a background in banking organization (Peterson). He planned an innovative solution for Enron profit in the natural gas business (Sridharan, Dickes, & Caines). For instance, Enron buy natural gas from suppliers and sell to customers with the higher price (Sridharan, Dickes, & Caines). It is because the demand of natural gas increased (Peterson). Kenneth Lay was very impressed with Skilling’s new solution in 1990 and employed Skilling to handle the Enron Finance...
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...Case Study of the LJM2 Partnership in the Powers Report Criminal Justice 331 Professor Vaurio February 04, 2009 Case Study of the LJM2 Partnership in the Powers Report LJM, which stands for Lea, Jeffrey, Michael, the names of Andrew Fastow's wife and children, was a company created in 1998 by Enron's CFO, Andrew Fastow, to buy Enron's poorly performing stocks and stakes and bolster Enron's financial statements. Fastow proposed in October 1999 to Enron's finance Board the creation of LJM2 Co-Investment L.P. Fastow would act as general director of a much larger private equity fund that would be funded with $200 million of institutional funds. The question of Fastow’s dual role as Enron's CFO and LJM2's general director was not viewed as a conflict of interest was easily laid aside. LJM2, which is a partnership created to buy assets owned by the Enron Corporation to help move debt off of the balance sheet and transfer risk for their other business ventures. These Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) was established to keep Enron's credit rating stay high, which was very important in their fields of business. A special purpose entity is a trust, corporation, limited partnership, or other legal vehicle authorized to carry out specific activities as enumerated in its establishing legal document. LJM2 entered into 26 deals with Enron to help the company move debt and assets off its books. The SPEs provides its sponsor with financing and liquidity while...
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... Prior to 2002, there were no major regulations that were enforced to maintain lawful ethical accounting practices. Since this was the case, there were no internal controls and thus was a leading cause that enable large corporation to commit fraud by altering books to show more profitability. Due to the overstating of profit in these large companies, investors were provided false information which made their want to invest in these corporations more. An example of a corporation that did this was Enron. Enron Corporation was an American energy company that was based in Houston, Texas. It was one of the world’s leaders in electricity, natural gas, pulp and paper, and communications. Enron reported financial conditions were sustained by systematic and planned accounting fraud. There were several reports that involved irregular accounting procedures which bordered on fraud. These reports were between Enron and their accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. Enron’s stock eventually plunged from $90 a share to $.30 a share. What was once considered a great stock was now a disastrous even in the financial world. All of this was brought to a head when Enron revealed that much of its profits were the result of deals with special purposes entities (Davis, Donna. 2011). Therefore the results were the any debts or losses that Enron suffered were not reported on financial statements. These unethical practices and behaviors lead to misleading financial statements and...
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...Enron Company Ethical Issues Case Analysis Format I. Time Context After the scandal revealed on Enron Corporation on October 2001 up until in present time (2014) it is still discussed. II. Point of View 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. 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. Although Enron went bankrupt and disappeared ten years ago, the impacts it has made on the ethical standards never faded. It took Enron 16 years to go from about ten billion dollar assets to more than sixty-five billion dollar assets, and took twenty-four days to go bankrupt. (McLean & Elkind, 2004) III. Statement of the Problem The said company projected itself as a highly profitable, growing company – an image which quickly turned out to be an elaborate mistrurth. Enron’s statements about profits were shown to be untrue, with a very big debts concealed so that they didn’t show up un the company’s accounts. Moreover, the company was seen to have been extraordinary active in political lobbying – with large numbers of legislators close to the company in one way or another. This fact had not been enough to save it, but raised...
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...Enron Corporation (Case 1.1) Most of us work from rags to riches but this is not the case of the Enron Corporation. Instead of becoming the nation’s greatest company, Enron instead laid claim to being the largest corporate bankruptcy in the history. The greediness and egotism wiped out the honesty and integrity that should instill on the persons who were involved in this case. Arthur Edward Andersen built his firm, Arthur Andersen & Company, into one of the largest and most respected accounting firms in the world through his reputation for honesty and integrity. His motto was “Think straight, talk straight” and he insisted that his clients adopt that same attitude when preparing and issuing their periodic financial statements. Arthur Andersen’s auditing philosophy was not rule-based; instead he invoked a substance-over-form approach to auditing and accounting issues. He avidly believed that the primary role of the auditor was to ensure that clients reported fully and honestly to the public, regardless of the consequences for those clients. Ironically, Arthur Andersen & Co.’s dramatic fall from eminence resulted from its association with a client known for aggressive and innovative uses of “accounting gimmicks” to window dress its financial statements. Enron Corporation was the second largest client of the firm and was involved in large, complex transactions with hundreds of special purpose entities (SPEs) that it used to obscure its true financial condition and...
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...INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY:- Once the seventh largest company in America, Enron was formed in 1985 when InterNorth acquired Houston Natural Gas. The company branched into many non-energy-related fields over the next several years, including such areas as Internet bandwidth, risk management, and weather derivatives (a type of weather insurance for seasonal businesses). Although their core business remained in the transmission and distribution of power their phenomenal growth was occurring through their other interests. Fortune Magazine selected Enron as "America's most innovative company" for six straight years from 1996 to 2001. Then came the investigations into their complex network of off-shore partnerships and accounting practices The saga of the ENRON Corporation has been unfolding in the media for well over a year. In the span of only three years, ENRON has gone from public and professional acclaim of the company and its senior executives to scorn, infamy and bankruptcy. Its public auditing firm, Arthur Andersen, has basically been destroyed, as well as publicly disgraced. Tens of thousands of employees and investors have been emotionally and financially affected. Major financial services firms in banking, securities brokerage and insurance have been, and may yet be, drawn into the legal battles regarding who is to blame for the ENRON failure. Enron grew wealthy due largely to marketing, promoting power, and its high stock price. Enron was named "America's Most...
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...The Enron Scandal Case Study FACTS OF THE CASE Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Enron's predecessor was the Northern Natural Gas Company, which was formed during 1932, in Omaha, Nebraska. It was reorganized during 1979 as the main subsidiary of a holding company, Inter-North which was a diversified energy and energy related products company. During 1985, it bought the smaller and less diversified Houston Natural Gas company > Employed approximately 20,000 staff > One of the world's major electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies. > Revenues of nearly $40.1 billion. Enron was almost universally considered one of the country's most innovative companies. The company continued to build power plants and operate gas lines, but it became better known for its unique trading businesses. Enron’s Line of Business Enron was originally involved in transmitting and distributing electricity and natural gas throughout the United States. The company developed, built, and operated power plants and pipelines while dealing with rules of law and other infrastructures worldwide. Enron owned a large network of natural gas pipelines, which stretched ocean to ocean and border to border. Enron Corporation represented one of the largest fraud scandals in history. As a result of the fraud investigations, the company was forced to file for bankruptcy in December 2001. Enron was “a provider...
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...Corporate governance Estachy Simon Case Study : Enron Summary : I- Presentation and chronology II- The financial arrangement III- How the governance can explain it ? IV- Questioning the corporate governance model V- Conclusion I- Presentation and chronology: Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Enron employed approximately 20,000 staff and was one of the world's major electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and papercompanies, It was created in 1985, by the merger of the Houston Natural Gas company with InterNorth. This merger was management’s first attempt to develop a national pipeline system for natural gas. The following year, the former CEO of Houston Natural Gas, Kenneth Lay, became the chairman and CEO of Enron. At the beginning, its business model was very classic: production and transportation of gas, and distribution essentially on whosales markets. Quickly it became the major energy and petrochemical commodities trader in US. Throughout the late 1990s, Enron was almost universally considered one of the country's most innovative companies. The magazine Fortune named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years, from 1996 to 2000. In 1996, Jeffrey Skilling, old consultant of McKinsey, became the president and Chief Operating Officer of Enron, seven years after his enter his entry in the company. Enron has $40 billions in 1999, and $100 billions in 2000...
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...American business practices since the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This new law sends very clear messages that all concerned must heed. This law says to every dishonest corporate leader: you will be exposed and punished; the era of low standards and false profits is over; no boardroom in America is above or beyond the law”- George W. Bush | | INTRODUCTION Since the initial separation of corporate ownership from corporate management, the abuse of power by management has been a concern. Early in the last century a small number of Industrialists owned and controlled the major corporations. Slowly, as these individuals aged and retired, their vast holdings were transferred to a large number of decedents who were, for the most part, disinterested in managing the firms in which they held an ownership share. The shareholders relied on experienced managers to direct their corporations. This transfer of power gave rise to agency problems wherein the agent of the organization (manager) is likely to place their own interest above those of the actual owners of the firm. There is a vast body of literature addressing the issues of agency problems and clearly defined Agency Theory to which the majority of scholars subscribe (Van Ness, Miesing, and Kang, 2009) The original attempt to create an antidote to agency problems was the formation of corporate boards of directors (Van Ness and Seifert, 2007). These directors were given the legal authority to oversee executive decision-making...
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...ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES POISON COMPANIES THE RISE AND FALL OF ENRON, WORLDCOM, HEALTHSOUTH, AND TYCO INTERNATIONAL David R. Lease, Norwich University Abstract This paper presents an analytical and comparative study of four recent corporate scandals involving organizations that had previously been recognized as both ethically and organizationally sound. Based on these case studies, the following issues are discussed: (1) The role of leader behavior and organizational/leadership styles in shaping the corporate organizational culture of an organization, and (2) The extent to which this culture renders the organization and its members (including the top executives) prone to ethical misbehavior. The four companies selected for this case analysis are: Enron Corporation, WorldCom, Inc., Tyco International, Ltd., and HealthSouth Corporation. Each case is considered individually. The basic elements in the scandal are outlined and the principal aspects of each organization’s corporate culture discussed, with special emphasis on the influence of leadership styles and leadership behavior/practices on organizational culture. The four cases are then compared and contrasted in the light of the existing evidence on the relation between corporate culture and ethical misbehavior. PRELUDE “We were doing something special. Magical. It wasn’t a job – it was a mission. We were changing the world. We were doing God’s work.” – Jeffrey Skilling, former Enron COO, President and CEO in the immediate aftermath of...
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...ENRON Corporate Culture Q1: Analyse the corporate culture at Enron and its management’s behaviour. Include in your analysis, the normative theory of ethics which you would consider most relevant in driving the decision making at Enron. Enron began by merger of two Houston pipeline companies in 1985, although as a new company Enron faced a lot of financial difficulties in the starting years, though the company was able to survive these financial problems (Enron Ethics, 2010). In 1988 the deregulation of the electrical power markets came into action and flipped the company from up to down, after deregulation company business updated from delivering energy to becoming an energy broker and soon after this Enron once a company struggling to survive transformed to booming one. Deregulation opened the gates for Enron to step into the market and compete with the leading competitors in the market bringing buyers and sellers in to market together (Enron Ethics, 2010). . Enron earned a lot of money from the stock exchange by trading their own shares and earning profit from the difference in buying and selling prices. Deregulation gave permission to Enron to be creative, for the first time in history a firm that was required to operate within in the guidelines could be creative and test the limits the way they want. As time went by Enron’s products and services evolved, so did the culture of the company. In this newly deregulated and creative platform, Enron embraced...
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...haystack” when referring to finding a small object in a large setting? The task of performing a very detailed search seems impossible. Leaving no stone unturned and demanding hours and hours of mental and manual labor. This is what a forensic accountant faces. By definition, a forensic investigation of any kind is conducted with the purpose of obtaining evidence that will be used in a court case. Forensic accounting is simply the analysis of financial documents use as tax returns, bank statements, canceled checks and the like, in search of proof of a criminal act, be it tax evasion, running numbers, embezzlement, money laundering, fraud by wire or securities fraud (DiGabriele, 2009). These crimes exists for the sole purpose of illegally making money. Leaving a paper trail pointing to criminal activity producing money coming into and leaving the organization. This is one reason the demand for forensic accountants or becoming more mainstream. Once used only by governmental agencies only like the IRS and the CIA to investigate and exposed the most unmoral crimes. More and more corporations are hiring forensic accountants. Some are even developing departments within the company for added security in return making a paradigm shift of the...
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...Running head: Ethics in accounting Ethics as an Accountant The main objective of this proposal is to gain insight into the unethical accounting practices of major corporations (with a majority of the focus on Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and Adelphia) and ultimately exposing the true perpetrators behind these scandals (the CEO's) in an effort to restore credibility in the once revered accounting profession. Many of the people responsible of these crimes are enjoying retirement in lavish homes while receiving ludicrous pension plans and company benefits at the expense of investors. If they are not brought to justice, they will realize they can get away with this sort of behavior, and the prevalence of unethical behavior will continue to rise. Research Question Are the accountants truly responsible for the fraudulent claims companies are making these days, or are they simply pressured by their bosses to fabricate figures that enhance the image of the company's profitability and fill the CEO's greedy pockets? Literature Review In the past 5 years, a plethora of articles and books have been released, dealing with ethical business practices. Balancing the books: The crooked E, is an article by Anita Peltonen, which examines Enron's practice of kiting (Illegally benefiting from altering the amount of money or time represented by checks that are in transit between deposit and payment, or credit card purchases that are between the purchase and the payment. For example...
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