Enron: what happened and what we can learn from it

Enron’s accounting for its non-consolidated special-purpose entities (SPEs), sales of its own stock and other assets to the SPEs, and mark-ups of investments to fair value substantially inflated its reported revenue, net income, and stockholders ’ equity, and possibly understated its liabilities. We delineate six accounting and auditing issues, for which we describe, analyze, and indicate the effect on Enron’s financial statements of their complicated structures and transactions. We next consider the role of Enron’s board of directors, audit committee, and outside attorneys and auditors. From the foregoing, we evaluate the extent to which Enron and Andersen followed the require-ments of GAAP and GAAS, from which we draw lessons and conclusions