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Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 20,600 staff and was a major electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper company, with claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion during 2000. ''Fortune'' named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years. At the end of 2001, it was revealed that Enron's reported financial condition was sustained by an institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud, known since as the Enron scandal. Enron has become synonymous with willful corporate fraud and corruption. The scandal also brought into question the accounting practices and activities of many corporations in the United States and was a factor in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enron Scandal
The Enron scandal was an accounting scandal involving Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas. Upon being publicized in October 2001, the company declared bankruptcy and its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen then one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world was effectively dissolved. In addition to being the largest bankruptcy reorganization in U.S. history at that time, Enron was cited as the biggest audit failure. Enron was formed in 1985 by Kenneth Lay after merging Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth. Several years later, when Jeffrey Skilling was hired, Lay developed a staff of executives that – by the use of accounting loopholes, special purpose entities, and poor financial reporting – were able to hide billions of dollars in debt from failed deals and projects. Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow and other executives misled Enron's board of directors and audit committee on high-risk accounting practice ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeffrey Skilling
Jeffrey Keith Skilling (born November 25, 1953) is an American businessman who is best known as the CEO of Enron Corporation during the Enron scandal. In 2006, he was convicted of federal felony charges relating to Enron's collapse and eventually sentenced to 24 years in prison. The US Supreme Court heard arguments in the appeal of the case March 1, 2010."High Court Hears ex-Enron CEO Skilling's Appeal" by Mark Sherman, Associated Press, via ''yahoo.com'', March 1, 2010 (ran in ''The New York Times'' March 1 or 2, 2010, p. 4 of NY ed., but no longer linked online). Yahoo link retrieved June 9, 2010; info via NYTimes link retrieved 2010-03- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Fastow
Andrew Stuart "Andy" Fastow (born December 22, 1961) is a convicted felon and former financier who was the chief financial officer of Enron Corporation, an energy trading company based in Houston, Texas, until he was fired shortly before the company declared bankruptcy. Fastow was one of the key figures behind the complex web of off-balance-sheet special purpose entities (limited partnerships which Enron controlled) used to conceal Enron's massive losses in their quarterly balance sheets. By unlawfully maintaining personal stakes in these ostensibly independent ghost-entities, he was able to defraud Enron out of tens of millions of dollars. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into his and the company's conduct in 2001. Fastow was sentenced to a six-year prison sentence and ultimately served five years for convictions related to these acts. His wife, Lea Weingarten, also worked at Enron, where she was an assistant treasurer; she pleaded guilty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rebecca Mark-Jusbasche
Rebecca P. Mark-Jusbasche (born August 13, 1954, Kirksville, Missouri), known during her international business career as Rebecca Mark, is the former head of Enron International, a subsidiary of Enron. She was also CEO of Azurix Corp., a publicly traded water services company originally developed by Enron International. Mark was promoted to Vice Chairman of Enron in 1998 and was a member of its board of directors. Azurix Corp"Form S-1" Filed with ''Securities and Exchange Commission''. ''Nasdaq.com''. March 15, 1999. She resigned from Enron in August 2000.Clarke, Thomas''International Corporate Governance: A Comparative Approach'' Routledge, 2007. p. 324. Since leaving Enron in 2000, she has been focused on water, energy technology, and agricultural projects. She is President of Resource Development Partners and Chairman of Dredgit Corporation. Early life, education, and early career Mark was born Rebecca Sue Pulliam in Kirksville, Missouri, and grew up on a farm.Hawn, Carleen" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenneth Lay
Kenneth Lee Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006) was an American businessman who was the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of Enron. He was heavily involved in the eponymous accounting scandal that unraveled in 2001 into the largest bankruptcy ever to that date. Lay was indicted by a grand jury and was found guilty of 10 counts of securities fraud at trial. Lay died in July 2006 while vacationing in his house near Aspen, Colorado, three months before his scheduled sentencing. A preliminary autopsy reported Lay died of a heart attack caused by coronary artery disease. His death resulted in a vacated judgment. Lay left behind "a legacy of shame" characterized by "mismanagement and dishonesty". In 2009 a list posted on portfolio.com ranked Lay as the third-worst American CEO of all time. His actions were the catalyst for subsequent and fundamental corporate reform in regard to "standards of leadership, governance, and accountability". Lay was one of America's highe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dynegy
Dynegy Inc. is an electric company based in Houston, Texas, in the United States. It owns and operates a number of power stations in the U.S., all of which are natural gas-fueled or coal-fueled. Dynegy was acquired by Vistra Corp on April 9, 2018. The company is located at 601 Travis Street in Downtown Houston.Heschmeyer, Mark. "Dynegy Bails on 181,000-SF Houston Office Lease." CoStar Group News. July 11, 2012. Accessed 2012-07-12. The company was founded in 1984 as Natural Gas Clearinghouse. It was originally an energy brokerage, buying and selling natural gas supplies. It changed its name to NGC Corporation in 1995 after entering the electrical power generation business. The company adopted the name Dynegy in 1998. Dynegy maintai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prisma Energy International
Prisma Energy International Inc., was a former subsidiary of Enron Corporation, formed in 2003 to own and manage the majority of Enron's overseas assets, formerly known as "Enron International". Prior to its official organization, Prisma was referred to within Enron as "InternationalCo". Enron's original bankruptcy reorganization plan, presented in early 2002, would have created a company broadly similar to Prisma (known under the working name "OpCo Energy"), but including Portland General Electric and the energy trading business, both later divested separately. As one of the final steps in Enron's liquidation, following their 2001 bankruptcy, Prisma was sold to Ashmore Energy International Ltd., a unit of Ashmore Group Plc., in 2006. Prisma was structured as an ' offshore' United States corporation incorporated in the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands, but with its headquarters in Houston, Texas. It served as a holding company for 15 gas and electricity businesses. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sarbanes–Oxley Act
The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that mandates certain practices in financial record keeping and reporting for corporations. The act, (), also known as the "Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act" (in the Senate) and "Corporate and Auditing Accountability, Responsibility, and Transparency Act" (in the House) and more commonly called Sarbanes–Oxley, SOX or Sarbox, contains eleven sections that place requirements on all U.S. public company boards of directors and management and public accounting firms. A number of provisions of the Act also apply to privately held companies, such as the willful destruction of evidence to impede a federal investigation. The law was enacted as a reaction to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals, including Enron and WorldCom. The sections of the bill cover responsibilities of a public corporation's board of directors, add criminal penalties for certain misconduct, and requir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accounting Scandals
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "language of business", measures the results of an organization's economic activities and conveys this information to a variety of stakeholders, including investors, creditors, management, and regulators. Practitioners of accounting are known as accountants. The terms "accounting" and " financial reporting" are often used as synonyms. Accounting can be divided into several fields including financial accounting, management accounting, tax accounting and cost accounting. Financial accounting focuses on the reporting of an organization's financial information, including the preparation of financial statements, to the external users of the information, such as investors, regulators and suppliers; and management accounting focuses on the measurement, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1400 Smith Street
__NOTOC__ 1400 Smith Street (formerly Enron Complex) is a tall skyscraper located in downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The building has 50 floors and is the 11th tallest building in the city. Designed by architectural firm Lloyd Jones Brewer and Associates, the building was completed in 1983. The office tower is situated on Houston's six-mile (10 km) pedestrian and retail tunnel system that links many of the city's downtown towers. It was formerly Four Allen Center, a part of the Allen Center complex. The building was the former headquarters of Enron, one of America's largest commodities trading companies during the 1990s and later infamous for its financial scandal in 2001. 1400 Smith Street was originally known as Four Allen Center prior to Enron relocating to Houston in 1985. Before Enron's collapse, the energy giant constructed a second, similar building across the street, connected to 1400 Smith Street by a circular skywalk. In 2006, Brookfield Properties acqu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
InterNorth
InterNorth Inc. was a large energy company headquartered at the Northern Natural Gas Building in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States, specializing in natural gas pipelines but also a force in the plastics industry, coal and petroleum exploration and production. It was a predecessor to Enron Corporation. InterNorth was founded in 1931 as Northern Natural Gas Company. Over the years, it acquired several other subsidiaries, such as Northern Liquid Fuels Company, Northern Petrochemicals Company, Northern Propane Gas Company, Northern Border Pipeline Company, and People's Natural Gas. In 1979, Northern Natural Gas reorganized as a holding company, InterNorth. They operated the largest natural gas pipeline in North America (approximately 36,000 miles of pipeline). In 1980-81, the company launched an unsolicited takeover bid for Crouse-Hinds Company, which wound up being acquired by Cooper Industries the following year. The company continued to pursue expansion opportunities. In 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Houston Natural Gas
Houston Natural Gas Corporation (HNG) was a gas utility headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company was acquired by InterNorth Inc. in 1985, with HNG executives taking top positions at InterNorth. Following the transaction, InterNorth was renamed Enron Corporation, and the company headquarters was moved from InterNorth's base in Omaha to the former HNG offices in Houston. The company is notable for former CEO Kenneth Lay who became CEO of the newly formed Enron. History HNG was founded in 1940 as a company to sell the gas produced by the Houston Pipe Line Company, after negotiations with Houston Gas and Fuel fell through. In 1956 HNG acquired the Houston Pipe Line Company and its assets for $36 million. At the time, HPL owned 761 miles of transmission lines crossing the Texas Gulf Coast and had been HNG's principal supplier since its founding. In 1963 HNG acquired the Valley Gas Production Company and its pipelines, with the president, Robert R. Herring, joining the company a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
