Enron scandal (1990): Earnings that needed vehicles

Enron expanded from a pipeline company into a trader of energy and other contracts. It used mark-to-market accounting, permitted in some contexts, to recognize estimated values of long-term deals as current earnings. Prosecutors and the Powers committee argued that valuations and related-party vehicles (including LJM partnerships associated with Fastow and structures known as the Raptors) were used to keep losses and debt out of the financial statements investors saw.

In October Enron took a large charge and the SEC opened an inquiry. A Dynegy rescue collapsed. Credit ratings fell. Bankruptcy followed on 2 December 2001, then the largest in U.S. history. Fastow pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2004 and cooperated. The 2006 trial of Lay and Skilling produced guilty verdicts on conspiracy, fraud, and related counts. Lay's death on 5 July 2006 abated his conviction; Skilling's sentence was later reduced after appeals, including the Supreme Court's 2010 honest-services ruling in Skilling v. United States.

Andersen was convicted in 2002 of obstructing the SEC investigation after document destruction in Houston. The Supreme Court reversed in 2005 for faulty jury instructions, but the firm had already surrendered its licenses and collapsed as an audit network. Sarbanes-Oxley created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, tightened auditor independence, and added CEO/CFO certification and whistleblower provisions. Enron is the case those sections are taught against.