Known also as Black Tuesday, October 29th left stockholders shattered with recorded losses reaching $40 billion dollars (Kelly, n.d.). Many banks and financial institutions began collapsing which led to irretrievable, uninsured deposits and savings. Fearing further loss, people began spending less which led to a decrease in production and an increase in unemployment. As companies began to fail, the government devised the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in order to protect American businesses. The Tariff placed high taxes on imports leading to a decline in international trade.
With a pay package that included more than seven million shares and options, Dunlap stood to make more than $200 million personally if he could keep Sunbeam's stock price flying. In the spring of 1998, when Dunlap and his team ran out of tricks, Sunbeam corrected its books, declared bankruptcy, and the stock price plunged from $53 at its peak to just pennies today. In an ominous harbinger of the Enron scandal, the SEC discovered that Andersen accounting documents had been destroyed. In the case of Waste Management -- which in 1998 issued the largest corporate restatement before Enron -- the company had exaggerated its earnings by $1.7 billion. The SEC's investigation found a long-running cover-up -- not just by Waste Management, but by Andersen as well.
From 1930 to 1930 over 10 000 banks failed. This magnitude of banks failing led to 6.8 billion dollars to be lost. Due to inflation, in today's money that would be around 60 billion dollars. This meant the money in the banks had disappeared, and so had people's life savings and investments. This life changing experience shows how extreme the depression was.
Skilling was indicated on 35 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy, making false statements on financial reports and insider trading. Lay was indicted on 11 criminal counts of fraud and making misleading statements. He died in 2006 (Weiss, 2009). b) A corporate culture that supported unethical behavior. Enron listed its core values as: Communication, respect, integrity, excellence (Enron Annual Report, 2000).
After the fiasco surrounding the acquisition of the Thunder River assets, shareholders lost faith in Kodiak Energy. Within a year, the company shares plummeted from $3.65 per share to $0.20 per share. The share price further dropped to $0.10 with continued investigation by the SEC. This disaster nearly cost the end of the
Lockheed Martin Company is expecting reduction in net revenues in the year 2013 by nearly $825 million due to sequestration measures taken by the United States Government. The sequestration has impacted the financial statements of the company and the net sales of the company in the first quarter of 2013 have decreased by 2%. The chief executive of the company have commented “Sequestration
The irregular accounting practices, including manipulating stock prices, caused Enron to have to file bankruptcy in December of 2001 (Thomas, 2002). The scandal is the most significant corporate collapse in the United States since the failure of many savings and loan banks during the 1980s (Hanson, 2002). Enron collapsed for many reasons. .Among the many reasons were the lack of attention shown by members of the Enron board of directors to the books financial entities and the lack of truthfulness by management about the health of the company and its business operations (Hanson, 2002). The firm’s senior managers had engaged in fraud for an extended period through a scheme in which partnerships owned by the managers could receive payment for goods and services never provided to Enron.
The biggest victim of the Lehman Brothers’ downfall was its investors. In weeks leadings up to the downfall, investors, unaware of the storm brewing within, were still being sold its financial products.4 This caused a loss of significant wealth for many when the company collapsed. A great amount of public trust was also lost. As Lehman Brothers is one the biggest financial institute in the world, its collapses caused ripples in the financial world, eventually contributing to the financial crisis. What Could Have Been Done Differently The ego of the top management doomed the company.
However, the traders were fired once it was revealed that Enron's reserves were gambled away which nearly destroyed the company. After these facts were brought to light, Ken Lay denies having any knowledge of wrongdoing. Needless to say, when required to testify before the U.S. Congress on the reasons for Enron’s collapse, Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Andrew Fastow, sought refuge under the Fifth Amendment. Andrew Fastow, Jeffrey Skilling, and Kenneth Lay are among the most notable top-level executives implicated in the collapse of Enron’s. Kenneth Lay, the former chairman of Enron was prosecuted on 11 criminal counts of making misleading statements and fraud.
However, the SPH program put a lot of pressure on store managers and sales. In 2010, a large group of the R&R associates sued it for “working off the clock”. This lawsuit might cause reputation damage, and the settlement is up to $200 million. In 2008-2009 before the case, there was an economic recession. The whole luxury goods industry in the U.S. dropped over 14%, and R&R revenues declined 10%.