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The ENRON Scandal is considered to be one of the most notorious within American history-White Collar

By misrepresenting earnings reports while continuing to enjoy the revenue provided by the investors not privy to the true financial condition of ENRON, the executives of ENRON embezzled funds funneling in from investments while reporting fraudulent earnings to those investors; this not only proliferated more investments from current stockholders, but also attracted new investors desiring the enjoy the apparent financial gains enjoyed by the ENRON corporation.

ENRON Scandal Summary: Embezzlement An ENRON Scandal Summary of the acts of Embezzlementundertaken by ENRON Executives may be defined as the criminal activity involving the unlawful and unethical attainment of monies and funding by employees; typically, funds that are embezzled are intended for company use in lieu of personal use. While the ENRON executives were pocketing the investment funds from unsuspecting investors, those funds were being stolen from the company, which resulted in the bankruptcy of the company. ENRON Scandal Summary: Losses and Consequences Due to the actions of the ENRON executives, the ENRON Company went bankrupt. The loss sustained by investors exceeded $70 billion. Furthermore, these actions cost both trustees and employees upwards of $2 billion; this total is considered to be a result of misappropriated investments, pension funds, stock options, and savings plans as a result of the government regulation and the limited liability status of the ENRON Corporation, only a small amount of the money lost was ever returned.

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Enron Scandal Summary
By: Alan Rankin Break Studios Contributing Writer An Enron scandal summary would sound much like the descriptions of other high-profile business scandals, except that the Enron executives were actually punished for their misdeeds. Enron was a business conglomerate and Wall Street darling during the 1990s, created by the merger of smaller oil and energy companies. Houston executives Kenneth Lay, Andrew Fastow and Jeffrey Skilling parlayed their new mega-company into a poster child for American business, boasting of record profits with minimal losses. Unknown to almost everybody, this image was the result of one of the greatest swindles in financial history. The shell game. Not everyone knows this, but stock prices are based on how successful a company appears, not how much money it has in the bank. Enrons executives, aided by timely deregulation of the power-utility industry, turned this loophole into a gold mine. They posted profits based on how much a given business venture could make, not how much it was actually worth, and concealed losses with offshore shell companies. Their accountancy firm, Arthur Andersen LLP, was old and well-respected; no one believed it would be party to corporate fraud, making Enron seem squeakyclean. The last scam. To be sure, when Lay and company founded Enron in 1985, it had real financial assets, but by the late 90s, these assets mostly existed as numbers in books. Then, in 2000, one of Enrons subsidiaries did something that was both stupid and criminal: it created an artificial energy crisis in California. Increasing demand through phony power-plant shutdowns and rolling blackouts, Enron drove up the price of electricity and its own profits. But this also focused the attention of journalists and federal investigators on the parent company, whose stock prices had never been higher. The collapse. Initially, Skilling and other executives responded to questions by insulting reporters and lying to employees. When pressure mounted, Skilling sold his Enron shares at a massive profit and resigned; Lay stayed on. In 2001, the Enron scandal came to light, resulting in massive stockholder defections. In December of that year, the company declared bankruptcy, its formerly golden stock now worthless. Because of its silent complicity in the Enron scandal, the Arthur Andersen company was also forced to close its doors. The fallout. In the end, 90,000 people lost their jobs; Enron employees, who had been encouraged to invest their retirement plans in company stock, lost $2 billion into the bargain. Stockholders lost another $70 billion in the Enron scandal, and the state of California sued for $6 billion in energy losses. Chief executive Ken Lay escaped justice, dying of a heart attack before he could be sentenced. Skilling, Fastow and another dozen executives went to prison. Skilling appealed his 24-year sentence to the U.S. Supreme Court; Fastows release was scheduled for December 2011.

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