...Enron Corporation Overview: 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 de facto 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 was attributed as the biggest audit failure. Issue: Enron, once the countries seventh-largest company according to the Fortune 500, is a good example of how greed and the desire for success can transform into unethical behavior. Good ethics in business would be to compete fairly and honestly, to communicate truthfully and to not cause harm to others. These are things that Enron did not seem to display, which led to Enron’s operations file for bankruptcy in 2001. Enron’s scandal has become one of the most talked about forms of unethical business behaviors. The company’s collapse resulted from the disclosure that it had reported false profits, used accounting methods that failed to follow generally accepted procedures. Both internal and external controls failed to detect the financial losses disguised as profits for a number of years. Enron’s managers and executives retired or sold their company stock before its price went down. Enron employees lost their jobs and most of their retirement savings invested in Enron stock. Enron’s dishonesty and misleading business ethics...
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...Review the mandated requirements for legal compliance (from chapter 4) and determine which requirements apply to the Arthur Anderson case. There are five categories that separate the mandated requirements for legal compliance. Two directly apply to the Arthur Anderson case. Those requirements include (1) protection of consumers, and (2) incentives to encourage organizational compliance programs. When I read the text, the examples which were given were all about making sure that people were not taken advantage of as a result of an entity’s business practices. The mandated requirement, incentives to encourage organizational compliance programs, speaks directly to the Arthur Anderson case. Our text states, “Gatekeepers such as lawyers, financial rating agencies and even financial reporting services must have high ethical standards.” High ethical standards don’t just happen they are enforced. Without compliance programs, loopholes are created for the dishonest. Discuss how the issues with the Arthur Anderson case may have played out differently if the Sarbanes-Oxley Act had been enacted in 1999. The provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley Act help minimize the likelihood of auditor failing to identify accounting irregularities by the following requirements: 1). Improving the internal control. Auditors comment on the internal control of the firm should be reported. 2). Reinforcing supervision for financial irregularities. This act boosts to establish an independent the Public Company...
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...THE NATION’S NEWSPAPER BS2003-01a Collegiate Case Study Enron law firm called accounting practices 'creative' By Greg Farrell www.usatodaycollege.com Accounting fraud Part I: The problems “Creative accounting” is not a new technique, but it can certainly be a costly one. Businesses feel the pressure to appear profitable in order to attract investors and resources, but deceptive or fraudulent accounting practices often lead to drastic consequences. Are these so-called creative practices always illegal or can they ever be justified? This case study will present examples of companies who have used inappropriate accounting practices, the results of their deceptions and the government's plan to avoid future incidents. Did banks play role in Enron scandal? By Edward Iwata Banks face accusations in Enron case By Edward Iwata Banks defend e-mail about Enron By Edward Iwata WorldCom finds accounting fraud By Andrew Backover, Thor Vladmanis, Matt Kranz and Michelle Kessler Former controller comes up more often By Andrew Backover and Chris Woodyard Cover story WorldCom’s bad math may date back to 1999 By Jayne O’Donnell and Andrew Backover CFOs join their bosses on the hot seat By Jim Hopkins Capitalizing on oldest trick in book How WorldCom, and others, fudged results By Matt Krantz USA TODAY WorldCom's accounting game is stunning investors who thought the loophole the telecom firm used was sewn shut years ago. Bros. "How was this overlooked...
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...profits became intense. Andersen leaders responded by pushing partners to become salesmen -- upsetting the delicate balancing act any auditor must perform between pleasing a client and looking out for the public investor. Seeds for Demise Although nobody knew it at the time, the seeds for Arthur Andersen's eventual demise were sown in 1950, when the firm introduced the "Glickiac" to the world. Named after its inventor, an Andersen engineer named Joseph Glickauf, the clunky device created a sensation by demonstrating that computers weren't just for scientists: Companies could use them to automate their bookkeeping. This ushered in an entirely new business. Rather than just audit the books, Andersen would set up the computers clients needed to keep the books. It wasn't long before Andersen boasted by far the largest technology practice of any accounting firm, raking in huge profits. The flood of money introduced a new element of tension into the partnership. Under rules set by the auditors who ran the firm, all of the profits from all the practice areas had to go into one big pot to be divided among partners. But since the average consultant brought in more money than the average auditor, the consulting side complained the arrangement was unfair. The week after New Year's Day in 1989, at a world-wide meeting of the firm in Dallas, the consultants finally made their break. They won an agreement to separate into two units -- Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting -- under a...
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...Olympus cameras began business in 1919 as Takachiho Seisakusho, a thermometer and microscope manufacturing company in Tokyo. It was renamed Takachiho Optical Co. in 1942 and later Olympus Optical Co in 1949, taking its name from its trademark logo, and reflecting the fact that optical products had become the core of company. Today, Olympus’ key business segments include medical imaging equipment, consumer electronics, industrial imaging equipment and scientific devices, including microscopes. Olympus’ downfall began when new CEO Michael Woodford was fired just two weeks after being appointed to the position. He had voiced concerns over corruption in upper management at Olympus, which was later revealed to be a complex, 20-year long, cover-up of losses amounting to $1.5 billion (US) in unreported investment losses. Olympus had invested heavily in risky securities after slow sales and the devaluation of the yen had resulted in lower than expected revenues. These losses, while known to management, were hidden in the accounting of Olympus. Michael Woodford’s dismissal resulted in him leaking the fraud to the press, which began police and other law enforcement agencies’ investigation into the allegations. The company later admitted the fraud, and since then several board members have resigned, and a number of companies have filed suit against Olympus. What these executives had orchestrated was a complex funnelling of money through subsidiaries in order to bury investment losses...
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...Abstract: In 2001 Accenture made the very bold decision to separate from its parent company Arthur Andersen. The start-up company faced the same problem of building a new IT infrastructure but it has its bright potential ahead. The main dilemma is to be chosen in between 3 options: to keep using the decentralized approach in which each country chooses its own IT platforms and has autonomy to run them, to try with a mixed approach in which the same standard applications would run throughout the enterprise but would be managed independently by individual offices or to switch to a single firm approach and boldly shoot for a centralized implementation of its most critical systems with all its offices interconnected on the same instance of a software platform. Case Context: Accenture has annual revenue of $11 billion, 75000 employees and more than 50 offices available around the world. Furthermore it had the right to use Andersen’s technology for one year. The biggest challenge that Andersen’s system faced, is the interconnectivity of the legacy applications. In addition due to the obsolete software platforms the remote access and control over internet of the key systems and data bases is impossible. Moreover individual accounting and human resource software systems is applicable for different offices...
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...Impacts of Unethical Behavior I chose to discuss the unethical behavior done by the company Enron. This company made many wrong choices by shredding and hiding the truth of their documents. Which not only affected their employees but put their 89 year old company to a stop. All accountants from this company were charged with altering inaccurate financial information about the companies they were representing. The trouble all started when the managers on Enron chose to provide false income statement figures. This ended up turning into a multi-billion dollar disaster for the company. They made the decision to do this in order to attract new investors. Once they took this step there was no going back. The Arthur Andersen accounting firm was a major contributor in this huge scandal, they led the assistance to the false documentation of Enron. Enron also had other accounts with other companies that they credited to aide in hiding the losses and debts that had been accumulated. All these choices led to the collapse of the company. If I had been an accountant of the company, I would have left to be honest. I would never feel right to scam anyone else, and I believe no other company should even if they are just trying to attract more investors. All accountants were charged in this case, and I do not personally think any company is worth going to jail over because they wanted to scam other companies and make more money. I would have brought it to their attention and if I felt...
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...The general attitude I feel is that of mistrust, and underutilization of benefits due to the wealth of information. The type of attitude is determined by economic needs, education on the benefits and the history of the employee relationship with previous companies. If something sounds too good to be true more often than not, it is .The economy has left a lot of people more cautious with their money and investments especially after the ENRON scandal. Every day we see an employee paying into benefits only to find the company is out of business or has gone bankrupt. The most common thing that I have seen is mergers that take on new benefits that leave prior employees out in the cold without seniority or longevity benefits. This has led to the mistrust of benefit packages. Benefit packages are sometimes hard to understand by the average employee. If they do not understand it and how it will work in their benefit employees tend to not opt for a particular benefit. There is also perhaps unclear cost associated with a benefit; take home pay may be less due to the allocated cost There are ways to educated and ensure that the employee is aware of benefits and feel comfortable being an active participator. The HR department can have a job benefit fair were there are counselors available for questions and concerns. Sometimes it helps to see the big pictures and employees need to see a timeline for future benefits .Asking for feedback gives the HR department real and relevant...
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...Many organizations have been in the news over the past few years due to accounting ethical breaches that have affected their customers, employees, or the general public. Given these corporate ethical breaches we have been experiencing in the recent times, I frankly do not believe that the current business and regulatory environment is more conducive to the ethical behavior. The year 2002 was the year when these business scandals escalated forcing people to lose trust in the business leaders. Many cases of accounting fraud were reported in the year 2002. The public policy had no significant changes implemented even though such unethical practices had been taking place. The public was not aware of what had been happening in their financial and other corporate institution because the cases were well hidden and these dirty games were well played. The case of Enron was an eye opener to the public. The case brought to attention the issue of the regulation of financial institutions. The fraud was put in the new and it was clear now that investment banks were in a position to generate more money in the underwriting process compared to relying only on broker fees. I became apparent that it was the duty of the employees to depict the true image of the business in front of investors or just make the executives or employers happy by showing them reports with profitable results; which were false documents just for report purposes. The Enron scandal exposed the issue...
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...savings, so that they would be interested in the good form of the firm and would not complain against the scam. Enron also managed to corrupt some politicians, bankers, analysts by pressurizing them or by giving great advantages and funds. For instance, the Energy Regulation Board earned one million dollars. Their marketing strategy was a diversification of the production of the corruption of analysts who would promote those new products. When the frauds were discovered by an employee and exposed to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the free fall began for Enron. The shares dropped from 90$ to 1$, the company was in bankruptcy, and was brought before a court. Many members of the Board were found guilty and punished and the Audit firm Andersen which tried to cover Enron was dissolute. All in all, that scandal triggered new ideas of regulation systems which would try to make the situation of firms more transparent and avoid creative and cheating accounting systems. However opacity remained a...
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...the distinction which separates a profession from a mere means of livelihood is that the profession is accountable to standards of the public interest, and beyond the compensation paid by clients.”[2] Basically, he is saying that accountants can not be expected just to do what they are paid for without considering the implications of what they are doing and reporting. They must ensure that the users of the information are protected so as the risk of wrong information is minimum. Accounting Scandals Ethics in accounting has been highlighted by the reports of several high profile accounting scandals over the years, such as WorldCom, Phar-Mar, AIG and Enron. The Enron scandal resulted in both the energy giant and their auditor, Arthur Andersen to collapse.[3] This is a classic example of what Gregg Easterbrook describes as “an ethic of service is at war with a craving for gain”.[4] This means that ethics is competing against greed as there is more bribery and...
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...them. Planning is not considered as an informal response to a crisis. Planning is a purposeful effort geared towards providing “individuals and work units with a clear map to follow in their future activities; at the same time this map may be flexible enough to allow for individual circumstances and changing conditions” (Bateman & Snell, 2009, p. 132). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Arthur Andersen’s, LLP, planning function of and how legal issues, ethics, and corporate social responsibilities impacted Arthur Andersen’s management planning. Arthur Andersen, LLP In 1913, Arthur Andersen and Clarence De Lany, accounting professors at Northwestern University, formed Andersen, DeLany & Co. A few years later, DeLany left the company; therefore the company’s name changed to Arthur Andersen. During Andersen’s control, the company’s mission statement focused on building a solid corporate culture among all Andersen employees. In 1947, after Arthur Andersen’s death, the company almost closed; if it was not for the intervention of...
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...the opportunity to read the “Number” by Alex Berenson because it has provided me with a great deal of past information that I did not know about at all before and to understand how accounting works outside of the classroom as I have been taught all about the concepts in the accounting classes I have taken so far. I would have never thought of the past repeating itself in the financial market world, but as the book talks about, the Arthur Andersen scandal that gave the creation of new acts and regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley act shows that unscrupulous behavior has existed way before companies such as Enron and WorldCom made world headlines when it was revealed that they had overstated their earnings. These scandals cots investors billions of dollars and shattered the dreams of thousands of people and their confidence in the nation’s security markets. (Never was I aware of the past repeating itself in a revolving financial market. I was more or less aware of how Sarbanes-Oxley came about after the fall of Enron, and the Arthur Andersen major part in helping the top executives at Enron forge numbers to increase its earnings. There is a phrase they have on Wall Street. It’s called raising the bar. If you can raised the bar, or brighten the outlook for your company, if you can see your growth accelerating, your stock will go higher and you will be given the currency to expand, acquire, and do whatever you want” (pg. 178.) This is the main reason why our noble citizens easily...
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...Strategic Management Process Paper MGT/498 March 10, 2014 Abstract: This paper explains the role of ethics and social responsibility when developing a strategic plan, and includes considering stakeholder needs and agendas during this process. This paper uses an example of a company overstepping ethical boundaries for stakeholder agendas, and what types of preventative measures could be taken to avoid this type of situation. Essay: Success is a common goal of almost all businesses in society today. Success does not come over night and with that being said it is important for management teams to develop a strategic plan in order to grow and set the benchmark for other companies in the industry. While every company should have a strategic plan in order to grow; this plan should be developed and executed with ethics and a great social responsibility. In order to determine the future direction of a company, it is necessary to understand the company’s current position and the possible roads that it can take in order achieve its goals. For this reason a strategic plan is essential for the growth of a company. Every successful business has a plan and knows where it is heading in the future. A financial services business is no different. Taking the time periodically to review the company's past performance can help predict the future performance of the company. With having a prediction of the future gives the company...
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...Enron the Fallen Tiffany Califf Professor: Karina Arzumanova LEG100014VA016-1116-001Business Law I July 24, 2011 Describe how Enron could have been structured differently to avoid such activities. Enron’s leaders had the work ethic of only fighting for themselves and if others got hurt it was no big deal hurting. Enron had that it’s a dog-eat-dog thinking. This type of thinking would, in the end, be the demise of Enron. Enron focused on short-term gains. The accounting tactics of Enron were degraded by no small terms. Enron was full of demoralized people throughout several departments with growing their personal finances their ultimate goal. They projected many years of financial growth when it didn’t exist and hid finances of millions when it was suitable. To avoid these acts, Enron would need to overhaul their aspect on the importance of their financial recordings and the senior executives would feel the consequence of seeking action for long term boom of the company instead of the quick buck. I believe that Enron was absolutely aware of their poor judgment. If Enron was serious about avoiding illegal acts, they would have make statements that were truthful of material fact, and would have not omitted material facts necessary to make the statements that were made. They needed to focus on the culture of their business. They should have paid notice to the values and how well they had been adopted by the board, leadership, and all levels of employees. Enron needed...
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