Corporate Accounting Scandals in 21st Century
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the U.S. market and its investors were stunned by a string of corporate and accounting scandals. For several years, the Enron Corporation, an energy company, participated in a number of partnership transactions that lost the organization a substantial amount of money. In 2001, Enron reported that it had failed to follow generally accepted accounting practices in its financial statements for 1997 through 2001 by excluding these unprofitable transactions. In these erroneous financial statements, the organization reported large profits when, in fact, it had lost a total of $586 million during those years. Neither internal nor external controls detected the financial losses disguised as profits. The revelation of the erroneous financial reporting led to a collapse in the price of Enron stock. The price of Enron stock fell from $83 per share in December 2000 to less than $1 per share in December 2001. However, some of Enron’s managers made millions of dollars by selling their company stock before its price plummeted. Other investors experienced substantial losses, including Enron employees who had invested a large portion of their retirement portfolios in Enron stock.
Role of Arthur Andersen LLP The CPA firm of Arthur Andersen LLP, which had been one of the largest accounting firms in the world, served as Enron’s auditor throughout the years of erroneous statements. The firm allegedly “overlooked” Enron’s questionable accounting practices since it was making a large amount of money for providing Enron with consulting services and did not want to lose the consulting business. The firm was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice, and in 2002, Arthur Andersen LLP was convicted of obstructing justice for shredding Enron-related documents requested by the SEC.
The WorldCom Debacle In 2002, WorldCom, Inc., a prominent telecommunications company, admitted that it had failed to report more than $7 billion in expenses over five quarterly periods. Its financial statements indicated that WorldCom had been profitable over those quarters, when the company had actually lost $1.2 billion. WorldCom’s market worth plunged from $200 billion to only $10 billion in July. In July 2002, WorldCom filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, causing concerns among its investors, creditors, and telecommunication customers [Sarbanes Oxley for Non Profits, Peggy M Jackson]
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