The Rise And Fall Of Enron

The Rise and Fall of Enron

The objective of every company is to maximize profit, become a big player and remain viable. Enron was no exception the key players at the time were Kenneth Lay CEO, Jeffery Skilling who was hired by Lay in 1990 to head the Enron Finance Corporation and by 1997 Skilling was made President and Chief Operating Officer. Andrew Fastow, CFO who was the chief financial officer of Enron.

Enron merged Houston Natural Gas in 1985 with another natural gas pipeline to create Enron. The intent from the beginning was to expand beyond just selling and transporting gas. The company was moving toward the newly deregulated markets. The deregulated markets were not governmental control. The company moved toward every deregulated energy market they could find. For example, the same way that the farmers market works is the same way that Enron bought and sold electricity and gas.

When the oil prices began to fall like dew in the 80’s the buyers switched from natural gas to fuel oil, the vision was set for the deregulated markets, and they refused to let anything obstruct their vision. Enron was expanding in the trade and service market. The lobbyist fought for the deregulated markets of gas and electricity, on the behalf of Enron. Enron prospective contracts ensured payment in the future for the delivery of gas and this strategy resulted in irregular prices of gas.

Enron began to invest into industrial commodities, for example, steel and wood fiber. The company further expanded trade to broadcasting time for advertisement and also entered into trading markets for internet bandwidth. By the late 90’s the company had invested about several billion dollars into the trading side of the business...

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...es of Enron debt securities and publicly traded equity from October 19, 1998 to November 27th, 2001.

The cooperate grievance charged many of Enron executives and law firms, accountants, banks, and directors with infringements of the federal securities laws and alleges that defendants engaged in enormous inside trading while making misleading and false statements concerning Enron’s financial execution. Due to these false statements Enron’s stock trade was as high as 90.75. The key players sold more that 20 million shares of Enron’s stock for inside trading profit of roughly $1.19 billion.

Enron is both a criminal and a civil case. It is a criminal case due the fraudulent aspects such as bankruptcy and for relation between Arthur Andersen Enron. The civil case covers between 1997 and 2001 for debt securities and for the purchases of publicly traded equity.