Bigger than Enron

Bigger than Enron
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In 2001, Enron's downfall was a warning of a widespread malice in the marketplace. Enron was the climax of the avalanche of America companies falsifying statements costing investors more than 200 billion dollars through false financial reports. The collapse of the company can be traced to the Wall Street; Wall Street is one of the agencies that were to act as watchdogs by keeping an eye of the corporate world to make sure the market was honest. Another cause of the collapse can be traced to Washington; Congress weakened the protection laws and tied the hands of regulators; aggressive companies like Enron took advantage of such situations. The Enron situation was not just an issue of numerous accounting errors, but it highlights how the usual gatekeepers like lawyers, politicians, bankers, accountant, audit committees and rating agencies in charge of regulation failed to play their part.
Before the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, American capitalist went into overdrive as the stock market skyrocketed and company CEO a were out to boost their company stocks. The CEO pushed the stock prices beyond it limited due to the massive grants they received as stock options. The stock option was a special pact that the top executives took advantage of by buying stocks at a low price then sell at higher prices. Most company CEO's like Enron jacked up stock prices to take hundreds and millions of dollars out of the company keeping them as stock options. This became a lucrative process because it generated profits for personal benefits to individuals. Executive cooked their books, for example, an executive having a portfolio of 100,000 million stock options, could make more money by moving stock prices up with few dollars because of false statements. As a result, there were hidden ...