In: Accounting
What was the business environment of enron during the late 1990s and early 2000s? And, how did this environment incentive the numerous frauds that happened during this period?
Ans : * During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Enron was a trading powerhouse. The firm began as a US natural gas pipeline company, started trading energies, then launched into new markets, including metals, paper, water, weather and Internet bandwidth.
* For a time, it seamed everything Enron touched turned to gold. The firm attracted the best talent, first from the energy industry, and then from Wall Street. In 2001, it all fell apart.
* That was a traumatic year for America. The “dot-com” technology stock bubble had burst the previous year, and now the broader market also fell. Terrorists struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon with devastating effect.With that backdrop, Enron descended into an accounting scandal and filed for bankruptcy.
* WorldCom was not just the biggest accounting scandal in the history of the United States—it was also one of the biggest bankruptcies. The revelation that telecommunications giant WorldCom had cooked its books came on the heels of the Enron and Tyco frauds, which had rocked the financial markets. However, the scale of the WorldCom fraud put even them in the shade.