Enron And The Worldcom Scandals

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Enron questions 1, 3, 5, 6, and 9 1. Which segment of its operations got Enron into difficulties? Enron first got into difficulties when Michael Kopper was appointed to manage Chewco although he was an employee of Enron working for Andrew Fastow. Kopper did not seem to have the best interest involved in his appointment. More difficulties arose when new capital structure for Chewco was created including an investment of over $11 million in equity that did not come from an outside investor, but from Donson--who was Kopper’s partener—the loan was Barclays Bank to Kopper/Dodson. This was the start of Enron’s problems. In addition to this, Enron was incorrectly booking revenue for services that were not yet completed. Also, Enron stocks were paid by promissory notes instead of cash. 3. Did Enron’s directors understand how profits were being made in this segment? Why or why not? Enron directors did not understand how profits were being made and did very little to question the how the company was making profits. The company’s management should have functioned to bring to the board’s attentions these acts and allow the board to evaluate how the profit was being made. The board of directors did do anything about how the falsification of fanatical documents would affect the company. 5. Ken Lay was the chair of the board and the CEO for much of the time. How did this probably contribute to the lack of proper governance? The lack of proper governance was the down fall of the company. A CEO should know what is going on with the operations of the company. Failure to know what is going on in the company can affect the operation of the company. The CEO should have noticed that the revenue was overstated on the financial statements. 6. What aspects of the Enron governance system failed to work properly, and why? The aspect
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