Fall of Enron
...ere recorded at $101 billion, yet on December 2, 2001, Enron filed for the largest corporate bankruptcy ever. A web of limited partnerships hid Enron’s extensive debts. On reports carefully configured with shady accounting practices, Enron still remained one of the Wall Street darlings. A share of Enron in January of 2001 was at a high of $81.39. Within six months of the bankruptcy, each share fell to a value below one dollar. The top executives that knew of the excess debts and untrue financial reports did not waste a second when cashing out their stocks. In total, they cashed out $1.1 billion in shares before the company fell into bankruptcy. While these executives cashed out, their 19, 000 employees were blindly purchasing more. Today, most of these employees are out of a job retirement funds, benefits, and savings. The small circle of executives are sitting pretty with their millions. They are now being faced with pending lawsuits from disgruntled former employees. Not only did this management team know of Enron's true financial status, they worked hard to cover their trails. They bribed accountants to hide expenses and even bribed auditors to over look any discrepancies. They even went as far as to shred documents. Not only was the company in financial trouble, but it’s top management team was out of control. Former executive Lou Pai cashed out $268 million in stock claiming it was necessary due to his divorce. He did in fact divorce his wife to marry a stripper from treasures, a "gentleman’s club" in Houston. The team frequented so much that the strippers began to look for the flash of an Enron Credit Card. "That’s like having a platinum card," one of the strippers told Newsweek. "If it’s an Enron guy, they got money." In the high ro...