Enron Corporation Position Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Enron Corporation Position - Essay Example The paper starts by giving a brief synapse of what Enron was and what the Enron Scandal was and why it caused the downfall of Enron. The paper will also discuss the ethical considerations of what Enron did to its investors and take a position on whether it was okay to sell stocks on what you believe will be the expected dividends. Enron was a company based in Houston and it specialised in commodities, energy and service corporation. The company was rocked by a scandal in 2001 and this was recorded as one of the biggest scandals of the century as a result of the fact that shareholders lost $74 billion and thousands of employees and investors lost their retirement accounts, and many employees lost their jobs (The ten worst corporate financial scandals of all time, nd). The main players in this particular scandal included the CEO Jeff Skilling and former CEO Ken Lay who kept huge debts off the balance sheet. In other words, the figure presented on the balance sheet revealed normal operations of the company which did not raise any suspicion among the investors. They also hoodwinked the investors by overstating their profits so as to attract many investors to pour in money into the company. However, things turned nasty when Sherron Watkins the internal whistle blower exposed them after witnessing high stock prices that fuelled external suspicions. Upon full investigation of the case, the main culprits were convicted of a criminal offence and the CEO was sentenced for 24 years and his partner in crime Lay died before his serving time. Andersen was also found guilty of fudging the company’s accounts. After the company was rocked by this scandal, it filed for bankruptcy. From an ethical perspective, it can be noted that what Enron did to its investors was not good especially to sell stocks on what you believe will be the expected dividends. The investors were not fully aware of the underhand dealings taking place behind