What was the accountants involvement in the Enron scandal?

In a way that no previous accounting scandal has -- and there have been plenty of late -- the collapse of Enron and the role of its auditor, Arthur Andersen & Company, have galvanized a discussion in the profession, among regulators and within Congress over the future of the industry. read more

The CFO of the company created a series of legal entities with limited ownership where losses could be reclassified to. Due to the limited ownership, these were not legally required to be reported in the consolidated financial statements. read more

The Enron scandal was a financial scandal that eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the de facto dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world. read more

Ultimately, though, former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling received the harshest sentence of anyone involved in the Enron scandal. In 2006, Skilling was convicted of conspiracy, fraud, and insider trading. Skilling originally received a 24-year sentence, but in 2013 it was reduced by 10 years. read more