Here's an Enron scorecard-
Greedy unethical lawyers from a very well-connected Houston law firm - they developed the PFEs for Enron and its auditors to bless. Some of them should go to jail for a long time.
Greedy unethical accountants from a big five accounting firm - they helped to refine and 'bless' the PFEs for Enron.
A greedy, unethical cutthroat CFO, named Fastow, who was out to get it all for himself - at any cost and over anyone's dead body. He should hang in the public square.
A greedy, unethical cutthroat CEO, named Skilling, who was out to get it all for himself - at any cost and over anyone's dead body. He shouted down VP Cliff Baxter, who early last year protested the crap then was forced to resign, and who recently killed himself. He 'retired' last year when he saw the whole thing was going to soon unravel. Skilling should also hang in the public square.
A greedy, phony new CEO, named Lay, who was out to try to transfer it all to himself - at any cost and over anyone's dead body. He convinced himself he could patch up the mess and hide the dead bodies. He did everything he could, including lying, to cover it up and to get employees to overweight their personal net worth in Enron stock. Lay should also hang in the public square.
Greedy, unethical wall street brokerages, who played the see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, "strong buy" game as long as they possibly could so they could underwrite Enron notes and equities. At least one wall street analyst was fired for speaking out against Enron fiancial practices and advising a strong sell on Enron stock. The cheerleading financiers should rot in jail.
Greedy, unethical democrats and republicans, who took millions of dollars from Enron in return for leaving much of its trading activity unregulated and unmonitored -a very unusual arrangement which allowed Enron to invent from thin air the financial results of that trading activity.
Some honest heros, like Andersen auditor Mark Zajac, and the Enron finance director who blew the whistle and VP Baxter and others who saw the fraud and took action and spoke up.
And the greedy Enron employees who were so gullible they put all their retirement $$ in ENE stock and thus rode the fraud all the way up in their accounts and then rode it down - they will have this huge error in judgement as their punishment. And those many Enron employees who did not - they have their good sense, dignity and self respect, and their financial health, as their own rewards.
You people make me laugh, talking about new rules for accounting firms, audit lotteries, etc. You are not even scratching the surface. You are missing the point. The b@ast@rds noted above should be given the death penalty. Or this stuff will keep on happening, as it has for as long as I can remember. |
