The Enron and Worldcom Scandals

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Individual: The Enron and WorldCom Scandals Review the accounts of the Enron and WorldCom scandals in Ch. 2 of the text • Enron’s Questionable Transaction on pp. 96 – 107 • WorldCom: The Final Catalyst on pp. 115 – 118 Answer the following questions using complete sentences: • Enron: 1, 3, 5, 6, and 9 on pp. 106 and 107 • WorldCom: 1, 3, 4, and 5 on p. 118 Enron 1. Which segment of its operations got Enron into difficulties? The ethical conflict of Kopper’s appointment to Fastow, while he was still employed by Enron, was one segment that caused Enron to get into difficulty. Another segment was that Enron booked revenue for services when those services had not been performed. Also, instead of paying stocks in cash, they were paid with promissory notes. And finally, over $11m was not invested which should have been. This segment really caused problems. (Brooks, L. J. (2007). 3. Did Enron’s directors understand how profits were being made in this segment? Why or why not? It appears to me that Enron’s directors would have stopped these activities if they had understood how profits were being made during this time, so I do not believe they did know. 5. Ken Lay was the chair of the board and the CEO for much of the time. How did this probably contribute to the lake of proper governance? Yes, he did not conduct himself with the responsibility of a CEO by being fully aware of what was happening in the company. I think that he did not know what was occurring. If he had known, he should have seen that revenues were overstated. This lack of proper governance was a big part of Enron’s undoing. 6. What aspects of the Enron governance system failed to work properly, and why? All aspects of the governance system failed in this case. Nothing was done properly, including a lack of internal controls. That is why the disaster occurred.

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