...LEG100: Business Law I Professor Young March 5, 2011 Enron was an old line energy company, owning electric power production facilities and natural gas pipelines. It engaged in several acquisitions during the late 1980s and the 1990s that dramatically increased its size. Its acquisitions included power companies in the U.S. and abroad, as well as investments in various energy and technology companies. In the 1990s, Enron reorganized itself as an energy trading company, whose primary form of business was to trade in various energy vehicles, including contracts to provide electric power in the future at pre-determined prices and similar contracts to deliver natural gas, water rights, wind power systems, broad band transmission systems, insurance, and other products. 1. Describe how Enron could have been structured differently to avoid such action. Enron, like most public companies was required by law to describe its party transaction to shareholders and the members of the investing public in several different disclosure documents. Overall, Enron failed to disclose facts that were important for understanding the substance of the transaction. Although they did disclose that there were large transactions that the CFA had interest. Enron did not give the CFO’s actual or expected benefits from these transactions or provide complete financial statements. The organizational structure could have been different by not changing the original structure. When Enron decided...
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...itself was born as the result of Houston’s Natural Gas and InterNorth, a gas based pipeline company from Nebraska in 1985. In the final analysis, the conspiracy of Kenneth Lay, Jeffery Skilling, and others, including the accounting firm of Authur Anderson, led to the collapse of Enron due to fraud, shady accounting practices, false reporting revenue, and general disregard of virtually every principle of business ethics. Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and Richard Causey went on trial for their part in the Enron scandal in January 2006. The 53-count, 65-page indictment covers a wide range of financial crimes, including insider trading, making false statements to banks and auditor’s bank, fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy. Another huge player in the Enron scandal was Arthur Anderson, who was charged with obstruction of justice for destroying thousands of documents, e-mails, and company files that connected the firm to its audits of Enron. Lay, Skilling, Causey, and their conspirators had engaged in different schemes to trick the investing public, including Enron’s shareholders, the SEC, and others, about the true act of Enron’s business practices. Enron’s publicly reported financial performances and results that were false and misleading because they didn’t reasonably and accurately reflect the company’s actual...
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...in the Room Tutor: Ms. Bewry March 29, 2014 Ashley Johnson-Blake ID #100426 Review Questions 1. Identify at least five (5) control issues in the movie using the Committee of Sponsoring Organization of the Treadway Commission (COSO) framework as a guide. According to COSO, the five control issues are concerned with the control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication and monitoring. Based on the documentary several control issues were observed. They were: * During the Enron oil scandal aka the Valhalla scandal there was significant misappropriation of monies. In this particular situation instead of reducing risk lay encouraged traders to keep gambling more. Traders gambled away all of Enron’s reserves and this was covered up by Muckleroy who was able to bluff the market by acting quickly. * Ken Lay didn’t listen to auditors’ reports that the two rogue traders should be fired, this demonstrated one angle of lack of a good management style and monitoring. Instead lay read the report and read his budget and estimated how much the rogue executives made and if they were fired what he could lose. With all of this in mind lay did not fire the executives and had been described as a guy that puts earnings before scruples rather than reacting to the dishonesty in front of him. * Ken Lay as CEO of Enron made the statement that he is not responsible for things he didn’t know. This demonstrates lack of good control environment as well...
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...company. Lay was responsible for the crisis as approval of the actions of Skilling and Fastow was done without inquiring about the details. He was also involved by making false statement to the auditors, bankers, indulging in wire frauds, conspiracy, money laundering and securities fraud. Moreover, he was a hippocrat who announced to investors to buy the stock as it is predicted to reach a level of more than $130 and at this point he sold his shares knowing the financial crisis of the company. Moreover he appointed Skilling on the condition to use mark-too market accounting that will foster company to book profit as soon as deal was signed irrespective of the success of the project. As the CEO of the seventh largest company he had direct access to the political and government authorities like G.W.Bush. The second individual responsible for the crisis was Jeffrey Skilling. He was hired by the Kenneth Lay to help him as his top subordinate. Skilling was responsible to develop and implement plans to transform Enron to a energy trading company i.e. to act as intermediary between the energy products producers and the users of these products. The third individual responsible for the crisis is Enron’s chief financial officer Andrew Fastow. He was involved in frauds, insider trading, money laundering and conspiracy. He is also viewed as the main cause for Enron debacle. The other individual responsible for the crisis was Arthur Anderson was also responsible for the crisis as was involved...
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...The Clayton Act, and The Robinson-Patman Act) 111. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 makes it illegal for an American businessperson to give anything of value to any foreign official in order to influence an official decision. A. Applicability of the Act B. Prohibitions under the Act C. Penalties for Violations of the Act 1. Criminal 2. Civil 3. others D. Defense under FCPA 1. Lawful payment 2. Bona fide expenditures E. Fraud/Scandal of the FCPA of 1977 1. Detection method 2. Importance of Early Detection 3. Big problems for small corporations/organizations 4. Types of fraud and who is involved 1V. Sarbanes Oxley Act A. The effects of Sarbanes-Oxley Act on corporate culture (1) Increase in accounting costs (2) Increased records-management requirements (3) Salary increases (4) Increase in audit fees B. Need for Continuous Auditing/ Continuous Monitoring and its benefits C. Role of internal Auditing and Management. D. Identification of Control Deficiencies – What is the Act doing to minimize. E. Fraud/Scandal, Waste,...
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...Fraud is a serious problem for most businesses today and often technology compounds the problem. In addition, the role of the independent auditor in the detection of fraud is often questioned. (http://www.swlearning.com/accounting/hall/ais_4e/study_notes/ch03.pdf) Fraud is dishonest activity causing actual or potential financial loss to any person or entity including theft of money or other property by employees or persons and where deception is used at the time, immediately before or immediately following the activity. (http://about.curtin.edu.au/definitions-impact.cfm) * Types of Fraud (http://www.auditsol.com.au/media/Fraudw.pdf) 1. Employee fraud Is internal or employee frauds are when fraud is committed against the company or organization a person is working for. Internal frauds can include: * payment fraud Payment fraud is any fraud that involves falsely creating or diverting payments. Payment fraud can include: * creating bogus customer records and bank accounts so that false payments can be generated * intercepting and altering payee details and amounts on cheques and Payable Orders, then attempting to cash them * creating false payment and financial information to support fraudulent claims for benefits * processing false claims by accomplices for benefits, grants or repayments self authorizing payments to oneself. * procurement fraud Procurement fraud is any fraud relating to a company purchasing goods,...
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...important to study the cause and the possible solution for the increase in numbers of white collar crime; our focus needs to shift from Blue Collar Crimes to White Collar Crimes. U.S.A spends nearly $50 billion on fighting Blue Collar Crimes, not even quarter of that amount is spent on fighting White Collar Crimes. Hardly a day passes without a new story of malfeasance. Every Wall Street firm has paid significant fines during the past decade for phony accounting, insider trading, securities fraud, Ponzi schemes, or outright embezzlement by CEOs. A massive insider-trading ring is currently on trial in New York, and has implicated some leading financial-industry figures. And it follows a series of fines paid by America’s biggest investment banks to settle charges of various securities violations. They are essentially "paper crimes" in which the perpetrator uses deceit to obtain money, property or some professional advantage. White collar crime encompasses a number of offenses including mail fraud,...
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...Week 1 Trevor Castleman Bethel University MOD450 Prof. Huss 1/22/15 Enron 1) It is in no way possible to reconcile Kenneth Lay’s statements in regards to Enron’s values and visions with the actual practices of Enron. Executive from the company used the company profits as personal funds. (p.11) It is impossible for Lay to truly believe that the company was in ethical operation as he was aware that Enron was using monumental amounts of credit to keep the company looking profitable.(P.11) Lay should have withheld legal operation and not allowed the company to be used as a person asset by corporate executives. 2) The way bonus’ are structured speak in great volume about a company when set up unethically. The way Enron’s bonus’ were structured so that employees were more concerned with the stock price than the state of the business. To the point that a dropping stock price was so unacceptable that employees were willing to lie, cheat, and steal to keep it on the rise. This meant defrauding investors and eventually collapsing a once profitable and respectable company. This system of a bonus is very corrupting. 3) Technical compliance with the law and ethical obligation are two completely different topics. When looking at the law it never seems to fail that there is some sort of loop hole. It is possible to completely comply with the law yet mislead and lose complete trust of stockholders due to failing to act ethically.(P.11-12) It is not only unacceptable...
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...of the US economy and has become a symbol of corruption for the whole Western economic system. In 2001, the nation was rocked by the collapse of Enron, a multibillion dollar corporation that employed thousands of people and had affiliations right up to and including The White House itself. Amid the financial chaos and destroyed lives and reputations the collapse left in its wake, questions arose concerning exactly how the catastrophe occurred, why it occurred, and who was involved (Raver, 2006). Enron purchased and sold gas and oil futures. It built oil refineries and power plants. Enron became one of the world’s largest pulp and paper, gas, electricity, and communications companies before it bankrupted in 2001 (Amadeo, n.d.). Prior to Enron’s bankruptcy, the government stepped in and deregulated the oil and gas industry. Because of the deregulation, Enron...
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...‘’Earnings management, in exchange listed companies, is not fraud but a case of caveat emptor for investors ‘’ UP708386 ‘’Earnings management, in exchange listed companies, is not fraud but a case of caveat emptor for investors ‘’ UP708386 708386 Corporate governance, Financial Crime, Ethics & Controls for Finance Pathways (U234479) 708386 Corporate governance, Financial Crime, Ethics & Controls for Finance Pathways (U234479) ‘’Earnings management, in exchange listed companies, is not fraud but a case of caveat emptor for investors ‘’ This essay is intended to evaluate different views on a case whether the earnings management in exchange listed companies is consider as a fraud or caveat emptor for investors. One of the first mentions of earnings management has been given by Shipper where she described it as ‘’disclosure management, in the sense of purposeful intervention in the external financial reporting process, with the intent of obtaining some private gain.’’ (Shipper, 1989). In other words the managers are adjusting profits or losses on final accounts to mislead the stakeholders and to encourage them from investing. Earnings management become a problem for investors as it generates fake impression about companies success and misguide them into making wrong investment decisions which often leads to a making a loss. Another problem arises with incorrect financial reporting which is insincere for investors and resulting in making a capital market...
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...one of the top five accounting firms. One August 14, 2001, the CEO of Enron, Jeffrey Skilling announced he was resigning his position after only six months. He sold a minimum of 450,000 shares of his stock earning him $33 million dollars. Kenneth Lay, the chairman of the company assured stakeholders that there was no accounting issues or any trading issues and that he would resume the position of CEO after the departure of Skilling. Enron’s stocks plummeted from $90 per share to less than .50 cents when it was revealed that much of its profits and revenue were from deals with special purpose entities. On October 22, 2001, the share price of the stock went from $20.65 down to $5.40 in one day, following the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) announcement that it was investigating several suspicious deals struck by Enron pronouncing “some of the most opaque transactions with insiders ever seen”. Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were indicted in January 2006 for bank fraud, money laundering, wire fraud, conspiracy, and insider trading. Mr. Lay pleaded not guilty to eleven criminal charges, stating he was mislead by those around him. In July 2006, Mr. Lay died with the SEC seeking more than $90 million dollars and additional civil fines. In November 2001, Mrs. Lay sold roughly 500,000 shares of stock ten to thirty minutes before the information of the company collapsing went public. This is information that the executives had know for over a year...
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...summarizes accounting fraud in the United States. I explain why each aspect of communication skills and report writing is vital to an accountant’s professional career. | Table of Contents I. Executive Summary 1 II. Introduction 1 III. Review of Literature 1 IV. Analysis 1 V. Recommendations 1 VI. Summary and Conclusions 1 VII. Appendix x 1 VIII. References 1 I. Executive Summary Accounting fraud is the deliberate manipulation of accounting records in order to make an organization's financial performance or condition seem better than it actually is. There are many examples of accounting fraud. * Merging short and long term debt into one amount for improving the perceived liquidity of the organization or a company. * Failing to disclose the risky investments or creative accounting practices. * Over-recording the sales revenue. * Under-recording expenses i.e. depreciation of expenses. From Enron, WorldCom and HealthSouth, it appears that accounting fraud is a major problem that is increasing in frequency and severity. research evidence has shown that a growing number of frauds have undermined the integrity of financial reports, contributed to substantial economic loses, and destroyed investors' confidence regarding the reliability of financial statements. The increasing rate of white-collar crimes demands stiff penalties and strong punishments. II. Introduction New laws and guidelines have helped reduce, but not eliminate fraud. Enron, WorldCom...
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...INTRO Fraud has plagued the world of accounting since the establishment of the profession. Fraud can be committed against an individual or a business. In order to identify fraud, an auditor must be able to differentiate between what is considered fraud and what is considered error. Fraud as defined in our textbook as “intentional misstatements that can be classified as fraudulent financial reporting and/or misappropriation of assets.” On the other hand, error is “unintentional misstatements or omissions of amounts or disclosures.” This simply means that fraud and error can have the same affect on a company and its books, the main difference between the two is the intent of the perpetrator. This paper will explore the basic types of fraud, preventing and detecting fraud, an example of a major fraud committed in United States history and the governments reaction to the prevalence of frauds in the 1990s and early 2000s. TYPES OF FRAUD There are three basic types of fraud perpetrated by employees. They are misappropriation of assets, bribery and corruption, and fraudulent financial reporting. Misappropriation of assets is the theft or misuse of assets that belong to a company. Misappropriation of assets is the most common type of fraud; statics show that it has occurred in over 91% of fraud schemes. It is also the simplest type of fraud to understand and commit which might explain its prevalence in many business fraud schemes. Asset misappropriation is also the least expensive...
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...accountant 1 Forensic Accountant Tanya Pace Dr. Gina Zaffino Bus 508, Contemporary Business 11/16/2012 Running head: Forensic Accountant 2 Determine the most important five (5) skills that a forensic accountant needs to possess and evaluate the need for each skill. Be sure to include discussion regarding the relationship between the skill and its application to business operations. Although forensic accounting is not a new field, it has become more talked about since cases like Enron came to light. For someone interested in the Forensic Accountant profession they should know that this field can be time consuming, but very rewarding. People who work in this career investigate white collar crimes such as company fraud, fraudulent financial record reporting, and illegal investment schemes. In a recent study by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows that white collar crimes have cost the United States and estimated 300 billion dollars (DiGabriele 2008). I think five of the skills that a forensic account would need are communication skills, detail oriented, professional and ethical behavior, sound judgment and discretion. Communication skills are vital in any profession. It allows you to convey information for others to receive. The problem with communication is that it can be interpreted differently by other intended parties. As a forensic accountant, communication skills, verbal and non verbal, are important when it comes to conducting...
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...Fraud is defined as the, “intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right” (Fraud, n.d.). However, not all fraud is intentional. According to Kranacher, Riley & Wells (2011), there are four elements to fraud: a material false statement, knowledge that the statement was false when it was spoken, reliance on the false statement by the victim, and damages resulting from the victim’s reliance on the false statements (pp. 2-3). Negligence within a company, also referred to as unintentional fraud, implies a party not living up to minimal standards of care (Kranacher, Riley & Wells, 2011, p. 61). When an employee commits an honest mistake without the intention of deceiving the employer or gaining an advantage over others is considered negligence. Negligence has five legal elements: duty, breach, cause in fact, proximate case, and damages (Kranacher, Riley & Wells, 2011, p. 61). All elements need to be present for negligence to be considered. In 2001, Enron became the center of one of the biggest fraud scandals of the decade. The executive officers Kenneth Lay, Andrew Fasto, Jeffrey Skilling including the accounting firm Arthur Andersen committed the biggest financial fraud against its employees and stakeholders. Enron’s officers drove the company into bankruptcy causing thousands of employees to lose their jobs as well several billions of dollars in lost retirement accounts (Kranacher, Riley & Wells...
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