Enron

Ethics for Accountants
November 16, 2012

                                  Enron & Ethics



Enron started out as a merger between Houston Natural Gas and Intermonth in 1984. Enron provided natural gas, electricity, and communications to its customers across the US and even around the world. He was also involved in developing many new energy related products.   Enron continued to grow rapidly and in 1990 which lead Enron to expand its products and included coal, plastics, paper, metal and other materials. The company soon formed Enron-Online, an international trading platform, which generated over $2.5 billion per day in business. By 2000, annual revenues for Enron reached $100 billion and the company ranked by Energy Financial Group as the sixth largest company in the world and it is also ranked one of the “Top 100 Places to Work For” by Fortune magazine.   By all outside perspectives, Enron seemed to be a growing, thriving company with ever expanding technologies and possibilities. No one could have predicted what would so quickly take place that would change the credibility and ethics of the business world forever. Furthermore, Enron was the United States’ seventh-largest corporation a multinational energy corporation. Enron was a leading advocate of restructuring energy markets in the United States and the largest player in the energy trading business.
The company’s most recent troubles can be traced to revelations in October 2001 of massive amounts of unreported debt and step losses incurred in non-energy and oversee energy partnerships established between Enron and other companies.   In accounting arrangements now under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Enron for several years had kept the debt and losses off its balance sheet.   When these losses and the level of debt became known, the marketplace lost confidence in Enron; shareholders sold the stock and credit agencies slashed the company’s credit ratings.   In addition, domestic...