ENRON
...rld of corporations, that’s what auditors are for. They make sure investors can act with confidence, by investigating any wrong doing in the corporate world. So, everyone looked towards the auditors, in this case the Arthur Andersen accounting company. Well, it turns out Enron had covered up a mountain of debt under thousands of partnerships. There is even evidence that the Enron board of directors knew of the “cover up”, at least four years prior. It seems the company looked a lot better on paper than it had any right to, thanks to Arthur Andersen and some insistent accounting. Not long before the bankruptcy the Securities and Exchange Commission began to investigate Arthur Andersen, as well as Enron. Arthur Andersen admitted it may have “errors in judgment”, as it told Congress that Enron might be in violation of securities laws. By the end of January 2002, Arthur Andersen’s auditor for Enron refused to testify before Congress pleading his right not to incriminate himself. There had been evidence of file shredding and computer document erasing at both Enron and Arthur Andersen, also one of Enron’s top executives shot and killed himself, in his Mercedes. Many questions still lingered, even after the Congressional hearing, the “cover up” being uncovered, and the executive suicide. What about Enron insiders selling off billions of dollars worth of shares while other shareholders were left with nothing? Why so many ...