Enron - The Biggest Fraud in History
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- čas přidán 29. 08. 2019
- In this video we take a look at the Enron story. At over $60 billion being scammed away from the public, they were the biggest fraud in history. Yes, even bigger than Theranos.
#enron #fraud #skilling #jeffrey
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Script by Fil Zivko
Sources:
www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-enron...
www.reuters.com/article/us-pe...
www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/...
www.nytimes.com/2006/07/06/bu...
www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-0...
edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wa...
www.latimes.com/archives/la-x...
Enron the smartest guys in the room (2005)
www.wsj.com/articles/ex-enron...
www.bloomberg.com/research/st...
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Had a boss who went to work for Enron. He wanted me to join him. But Enron's policy was that you had to transfer 100% of all retirement into their retirement plan which was invested in Enron stock. I did not want to do this. I was very uncomfortable about this so I said no. Then this happened and a lot of people lost all of their retirement. One of the best decisions I ever made !!
Holy Hell. You, Sir, dodged a bullet.
You did the smart thing. Transferring all of your retirement to a new company's retirement plan, no matter how great it might seem, just sets off every red flag I have in my brain.
You understood basics of risk management
Good on you. For anyone reading... don't hang onto a lot of stock in the company you work for. If it goes down, not only do you get laid off, you lose your savings too.
How would they know what your retirement balance looked like at your old job? It's none of their business anyway
The biggest scam in the world is CZcams putting 3 to 4 ads in between videos.
Peter the Panda 😂 yup agree
CZcams Vanced
No,
Enron: The biggest fraud in History.
Theranos: Phew, At least I am not The Biggest Fraud In History
just get the addon adblock. its been years the last I seen an add for anything.
This is amazing content the least you can do is tolerate 4 5 sec ads in a 20 minute video.
"He was motivated by two things, money and strippers"
It's always the same with these guys
Work hard, play(scam) hard.
I thought I heard wrong, but no, it was strippers. 😂😂😂
He could have meant chicken strippers.
you say that like it's abnormal
Nah it's AD 70 first, then strippers, then money.
I worked for Arthur Andersen at this time.
A 100 year old accounting company with an excellent reputation was brought down by a handful of unscrupulous AA people in Houston who cooked Enron's books. Causing 25,000 plus AA employees to lose their jobs. A shame.
At least there were lots of changes to accounting standards to try and prevent it happening again
Arthur Anderson, a corporate definition of greed and corruption. Destroyed many lives.
Yah I work at an accounting firm in Houston, and one of the partners there was actually an associate at AA in Houston at the time. He's actually one of the more diligent partners in the office. They always scrutinize people when they don't question management assertions enough. I talked with them a little about it, and it seems to me that it was mainly people at the top at the AA office that were the problem. The scandal breaking was a big shock to them (associates, and senior associates in general), and then was pretty quickly laid off due to the office closing. Obviously they're doing all right, after all they're a partner at a big firm, but they struggled for a year trying to find work because no firm wanted to touch them with a 10 foot poll. Point being its a shame that a few dozen people at the top of the firm (in the offices across the nation) screwed over so many people. Not just Enron but the firm's employees as well.
Also correct me If I'm wrong (I was 4 when all this went down) but wasn't AA folding not just due to Enron, but also Healthsouth, and Worldcom. It was just all three happening in a year or so within each other that caused a lot of companies to lose faith in AA?
Closing their eyes all the way to the bank. AA existed to validate customers expectations, not oversee their financials as they were supposed to. The company tried to serve two masters and it killed them. You can be an accounting firm, or you can be a consulting firm, you can't do both.
My dad worked at Arthur too! He has crazy stories about those times. Mike McAndrews!
Jeffrey Skilling out of prison early 2019 and starting up a new energy company backed by a former Enron executive, what a wonderful world
One hand washes the other.
These peoples have no morals
Wonders of capitalism built every day ;)
Seems legit
Almost everything he was convicted of is legal under a different circumstance. If it was a privately held company, it's not a crime, as long as shareholders tolerate it. It's nobody's business
Here's my favourite line from the movie about this. "It had taken Enron 16 years to go from $10 billion in assets to $65 billion in assets. It took them 24 days to go bankrupt."
Once they bring in the bobcat to help with shredding papers, you know it’s time to look for a new job.
Yeah well, some people got 10 years of very good salaries out of it
@@jackyjiang3943 Yeah, because they're stupid enough to think a bobcat can shred papers, and you don't want to work for someone that stupid.
@@jackyjiang3943 stolen comment
@@viccypress6292 word for word lmao and it’s right below this comment hahah
A manager I knew at AT&T retired after over 30 years, took around $500,00.00 lump sum retirement, and then went to work at Enron. He was told that loyal Enron managers were expected to put their retirement funds in Enron stock, so he did, ALL of it. One year later Enron folded, and he lost ALL of his retirement money. Nice fellas those Enron upper management guys.
Goshomighty
Is he alright now?
@@Blank-lp4fz; I know he was relying on Social Security for a time, but my wife's health failed and I became her full time care giver. I lost track of him after that.
I bet he committed suicide afterwards. I have zero (0)sympathy for greedy bastards!
damn, that's fucked up smh. I know it shouldn't, but it baffles me how people can literally have no type of moral compass, like aren't you rich enough already?! It's one thing to scam regular consumers (still not ok) but to steal from the very people keeping your company intact?! Just plain ruthless.
Reporter : How does Enron actually make money
CEO: I don't know, talk to our accountants.
How are you committing fraud and not even thinking of the most basic of coverups?
The only surprising thing about the Enron scandal was that people were held accountable and jailed for it.
How is that surprising? There are countless examples of the SEC taking action against individuals and corporations...
@@TheTravisTube true, but do you know how many bankers went to jail for causing the global financial crisis? It was one, just one and he didn't really do much. I believe the only reason people went to jail over the Enron scandal was because Bush and Cheney knew what was happening and and came down hard so no one looked at the real culprits. Also Bernie Madoff went to jail but what about the people who helped him engineer the fraud? There was literally an entire floor of the building it occurred in dedicated to it. None of them are in jail, in fact they're probably still ripping people off in other schemes.
If you want to rob someone and get away with it use a pen, not a gun
Well not really
Yes they did get jail time
But he still got money after paying his fines he got to keep the rest
I agree, Highly doubt we will see that happen today.
Except for Ken Lay.
He escaped & is still alive.
Fun fact: Enron is the reason that publicly traded companies are now required to 1) make all their financial statements publicly available, and 2) submit to annual audits by independent auditors (not in-house auditors). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was a direct result of the Enron collapse and you spend a _lot_ of time talking about it in accounting school nowadays.
I decided to watch this video after hearing about Enron in literally every economics class I’ve had but it was like everyone else knew about it except me 😵💫
Sarbanes Oxley act is a JOKE! I turned my company in for potential violations and the FBI never called me back! Just goes to show you how corrupt our corruption is. And it is pretty corrupt.
Also why was Linda Long Duke Energy’s CEO? Wasn’t she part of the Enron scandal from Arthur Anderson? Well how do you become a CEO from this fraudulent accounting firm?
this will also go the way of the glass -steagall act and it will be business as usual
@Frozen Adept No. Why would it? GAAP is the same regardless of the organization you're accounting for. 🙃
I remember reading the book about Enron, and the saddest thing was a small electrical company (think it was West Virginia oil and gas) were brought out by Enron, and some of the workers had been paying into their 401's for 40 yrs, all the W Virginia shares were converted to Enron shares and they lost everything through no fault of their own
That also happened to the Portland company. Very sad.
I remember when that happened
The best way to judge your company’s stock is by asking for a promotion, I was denied and it fell over 50% after a few months.
Do you mind sharing which book it was?
P
I managed to dodge two bullets over my adult life. First was to not buy any Enron stock, and second (and more recently) not buy any crypto.
Are you going invest if crypto has a second wave ? Bc if that happens it’s going to be solidified
Smart people do not buy Cyrpto. People who think they are smart though do.
there always money to make even its bullets. u coulda got out before enron collapses and make million, or you could buy bitcoin at 10cent and make billions.
Ignorant comment
@@cryptocorporal777 exactly 💯
Warren Buffet was asked one time why he never invested in Enron. "I could never figure out how they made money" was his answer. The fact that anyone would want Jeff Skilling involved in their business tells me all I need to know to stay away.
This is one reason I really respect Warren Buffet. he is a great investor but also the epitome of simplicity. I think he said he doesn't invest in tech because it is too complicated and this quote about he felt about Enron is further proof. Most times the best answers and solutions are the simplest ones and gut feelings shouldn't be quickly discounted.
He has said he only invests in stuff he understands
@@orboakin8074 the great investor barely out performs the S&P 500.
I feel like your attempt at discrediting him, because of his seemingly low returns. Shows your lack of understanding on why everyone values his opinion.
@@elvinkoay1393 He can barely beat an unmanaged SP500 and got his start with family funds and connections. If Buffett was actually a midwestern bumpkin and made his fortune, I'd have more respect but the fact of the matter is he is literally a US Senator's Son.
Ah, the good old days of the early 2000's. VHS tapes, lunchables and capri suns, and the FBI busting through your door cause your Dad had done some Enron stuff.
Better times really
Very early 2000s were pleasant. You felt like the world was in bad shape, but could still be fixed because there were still some good people in the world
Dang…. How far we’ve fallen
I watched the mass exodus from my downtown window....briefcases and boxes everywhere.
@@hobomike6935 as a Muslim immigrant, after 9/11 and the induction of the patriot act, which was the quintessential canary in the coal mine, I enjoyed the early 2000s like it would end at any moment. Because it did.
Ask Roger Stone what that was like. For nothing.
It always astonishes me in these cases how many people have this idea that "if the line on the stocks goes up, it's real."
It's amazing how greed takes hold and people will just invent value out of nothing if it brings them wealth, despite knowing that it's insanity to do so.
a bit like those US dollars you have in your wallet. In reality they are worthless.
Lithium Americas Corporations is interesting.
I kept reading China is it's largest producer. Which made me think China was rich in lithium. This May 9, 2022 article agrees that China is the largest producer but identifies that China gets most it's lithium from Australia. China's lithium company is called Ganfeng Lithium (GNENF). GNENF is currently the largest stock holder in Lithium Americas Corporation (LAC). THIS APPEARS TO BE GLOBAL MONEY LAUNDERING. This company started up in 2007 and still as of 5/9/22 "Both these projects are still under development. LAC is not currently producing lithium or earning revenue." Yet is worth billions.
LAC's 2 non-money makers are in Thacker Pass, Nevada and another in Argentina.
Now I haven't looked up LAC or the Argintina company (which name is conveniently left out of this article) but how much do you want to bet BlackRock and Vanguard are involved???)
www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/best-lithium-stocks/
My retirement account took a $10k hit when Enron went down. It amazes me how easy it still is to commit fraud.
Because the government has little incentive to actually make serious and effective reform unless they were personally affected by it (like with Enron, a lot of politicians personally lost money on it which is why it wasn't allowed to slide.) The most you get otherwise is a dog and pony show where very little actually changes and congress uses it as an excuse to launder some tax payer money to themselves.
"If you have a company and it can't explain in one sentence....what it does...it's illegal." - Lewis Black
Describe Amazon.
@@minecraftia7626 online sales ?
Goran Marjev online market place, with competitive prices and shipping
@@s.p.2494 Well, that is a horrible description for Amazon. Also, Amazon has physical stores now. Would you say Tesla is an online sales company, too?
@@m_a_s6069 Tesla is not a sales company, It's a brand and vehicular manufacturer.
As for Amazon. It is a technological company operating in several nations that specializes in e-commerce and shipping.
I was in a power generation business group prior to my retirement. When the Enron guys were involved with a power purchase they came on very aggressively and confidently. It was clear that they always knew they were the smartest people on the room. My boss just refused to do business with them. He was criticized for it by some. Turns out he was right.
No matter how smart a person is in a room, there is always someone a bit smarter then them i.e. there is always a bigger fish.
@@Puzzoozoo no, I mean its basically a fact that someone has to be the smartest - but they aren't normally loudmouthed assholes whining about regulations "holding them back."
@@Puzzoozoo intelligence is somewhat subjective, some people suck at analytical intelligence but have amazing emotional intelligence and can get by on masterfully manipulating those around them.
Sounds like they were projecting confidence and intelligence to make up for the complete lack of anything substantive. The only thing they were smart about was cooking books and manipulating relationships with banks and regulators.
@@Puzzoozoo Qui-gon Jinn :D
I was working for Exxon-Mobile and Enron used to constantly try to recruit me. It was not unusual for someone like Duke Energy to occasionally try to throw me a bone. But Enron was all over me all the time. I was happy with my job and never took it cause they did not offer me much, just harassed me a lot. It was odd. Then about 4 years later the scandal broke.
From Kenny Boy of Enron
To Elizabeth, Theranos
Trevor Milton, Nikola 1
Sam Bankman Fried, FTX
And Caroline Elisson.
The conclusion is
Having an idea and having connections
Always has been
Your list is like a 0.01% of all acts of fraud occurring daily. And yes, the rest 99.9% work in the same way.
Being white also helps. By the way, you forgot a few; Madoff, Rothstein, Robert Allen Stanford etc.
@@amazinglife1068 at least Madoff was imprisoned for life and died in prison
To Elon Musk
"If I could go back and redo things, I wouldn't" probably the only honest words out of Skilling's gob
Skillings & 'honesty'
don't even belong in the same paragraph
I looked up this quote from him and it doesn't actually just cut off there. The whole quote is, “If I could go back and redo things, I would not, now have used the term that I used.” (Referring to calling someone an 'asshole,' I think.)
Not implying that I support what he did, obviously. But the censorship is treacherous. Realizing that more and more these days. :)
yeah, they would
@@carolinebrawn2171 thanks for clarifying that.
Skilling is the brother of Tom Skilling, chief meteorologist at WGN TV in Chicago.
I, briefly, worked as a software developer for a subprime mortgage company in 2006. It was my first and only time working in subprime and I didn't understand the market going into it. When I found out my supervisor and his buddy, the chief applications architect, had previously worked for Enron I found another job as quickly as I could.
🤣🤣👍
Best decison ever.
Damn the shock value
@@williamwu9244 watch The Big Short
whats the company name?
Back then fraud was a big deal, people went to prison and lost their money and careers - it was scandalous - now it seems that it’s just part of doing business - SBF (FTX) and his cohorts happily continue living their lives like “oopsies - sorry everyone - we lost a bunch of money, we’re just kids after all - oh well, we’ll try better next time”
Sbf was just charged and being extradited to the US
Sometimes* they lost their money and their careers but RARELY did these fraudsters go to jail because the regulatory bodies were gutted by hardcore free market lobbyists and politicians who were busy chasing profits.
You can rip off the poor as it’s a cost of doing business. Try to rip off the rich?
SBF just scammed a bunch of rich idiots. I don't see the problem. Who would trust a vegan?
@@swesleyc7 Now he’s free on bond (his parents posted their house as collateral), and his associates plead guilty and are going to spill at his trial.
When I was an undergrad, one of my accounting professors told us how he worked at Enron towards the start of his career. When talking about bad accounting practices in class, he sometimes brought up things he saw happen at Enron and why those kinds of practices are frowned upon, if not straight up illegal. And during office hours, if you asked him about it, he'll tell you so many shady stories down to the more minute details. If you ever meet someone who worked at these companies with scandalous stories, I'm sure they'll have stories to tell.
What illegal activities occurred during office hours?
It’s amazing how little jail time these corporate thieves do yet a corner street weed dealer can get put away for life. It’s truly unbelievable
The US legal system is a joke
Capitalism at its best. For every street weed dealer, the jail and all its investors make money from tax dollars. More subscription members they have, more money they make and unlike Netflix those poor dealers cannot unsubscribe unless you have money to cancel subscription fee. 😥
In what's states is there still life sentences on weed? Unless your referring to the 3rd strike laws
@@lukelang7781 Texas.
It helps if your skin is white.
12:26
Bush: Intervention in California will not solve anything.
Also Bush: Intervening in Iraq will solve everything (that we made up).
2nd3rd1st As a Californian, it’s true.
It’s because they “had” dub-ya M Ds
I was deployed twice. You know who sold the troops on that lie? The MSM. Then just like now, the MSM tells stories not facts. People act like it's a recent thing, the media being a pack of lying partisans, but no. It probably goes back far longer then we know. The press is supposed to be a check against the lies our government might want to tell us to further an agenda we the people might not agree with. Instead it turns out if the press likes your politics or your family then they just say whatever the hell you ask them to.
Man, imagine if normal people could get away with that.
"Help! My house is on fire!"
Fire Department: "It's our belief that intervention will not solve anything."
Hindsight is 20/20. The Bush administration may not have been aware of the full extent of the problem.
Thanks for making this video for us Millennials who heard about Enron on the news but were too young to understand what happened.
FTX: "Hold my beer."
"We're trying to change the world" - that Enron slogan was also stated by Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos. If a business says that, run for the hills
Apple never said it?
@@sergiisoshka9481 Because Apple *did* change the world?
Dankster big time
Hasn't musk said it too? But let's not talk about that, or you're fired.
Elon Musk also wants to change the world. 🤔
My dad was a consultant for Arthur Andersen back in the day, but absolutely DESPISED working there. It was one of the “big 5” accounting firms back in the day, and they just worked him to the ground. When he told his bosses that he was quitting, before everything went down, and was going to a smaller consulting firm, they laughed in his face.
When the Enron stuff went down, and AA got shut down, they all went to him asking for a job. It wasn’t till years later that he’d even tell people he worked for Arthur Andersen! I was a young when it all happened, but I love hearing about it from this vid!
OMG! Ur a survivor - so is your dad! I worked for a couple of the Big Four and big Consulting firms… I think Enron was unique in its few baddies at the top who actually meant to do harm, but other firms did grueling stuff like the ‘Rank and Yank’ performance review process.
Learning and history are fun!
Just entering the industry and all I hear is horror stories from the big 4
Lol, great story!
I was working for an office furniture installation company that was working on an Arthur Anderson complex in tempe, AZ.
the Arthur Anderson people were arrogant and rude.
glad it crashed and burned.
sorry to say your dad's a criminal doesn't matter if it wasn't on purpose or not he helped them he is a criminal
I do have a theory. I've come to perceive our generation as the "party's over" generation. Since I was old enough to watch things in 2008 , albeit just barely at 16, I have watched things progressively get worse and worse and seen my generation and those after being more desperate with fewer prospects and a bleaker outlook. We watched the understood way the economy worked die in 2008 and saw our parents, grandparents, and the oldest of us made to pay the cost to kill it, and have since been made to play in its corpse all while being told that everything's fine even though you can just feel that it isn't. We've watched the world lose its mind in the last decade but everyone in charge who made sure to ruin our capacity to realistically handle things once they're gone tells us we're wrong. That kinda situation, where you're looking at getting away with millions or being taken care of in prison for the rest of your days by the government who's taken your predecessors ability to get ahead away from you while you weren't even old enough to be counted amongst them as people yet, why not shoot your shot? Your parents money and your future got spent saving the people who set everything up to fail, why should you play by those rules?
Sorry for the doom and gloom but the deep dive into this topic I've done with this channel and others over the past year or two has really ruined my outlook on things these days. At this point I'm just happy I make just enough to afford my house for as long as I can, until someone finds out a way to make sure I can't have that either. The only sensible option I've found is to get as far from this madness as possible and be as self sufficient as possible before they try and take that too.
8:20 Did you catch that? Enron was a major part of the reason Blockbuster went under. That's the reason they were too late to the streaming game. Crazy!
They were too late because they were too early.
Ironically, in my second semester in college, we had an Enron board member come to class to speak for the day about the future of business. I don't recall who it was, (its been a few moons since then) but this was still about 6 years before their collapse. I recall he wore a brown business suit which he opened up to reveal an Enron t-shirt underneath. I remember he seemed to spend more time talking about his shirt being an earlier logo than the final one, and joked how it would be valuable one day. He was just a fast talking, positive, and excitable fellow. And obviously he had more wealth in the bank than everyone in that room combined and multipled by 100. He also talked about how great the company was and invited everyone to apply. And I'm sure folks did follow that advice.
There is a term for cult recruitment, its called love-bombing. You literally have so many people giving you attention, you fall for the cult's message. Enron engaged in what I'd call positive-bombing. They were so excited and smooth...so positive and upbeat. Banks couldn't wait to throw money at them. Enron execs would have been massive CZcams sensations if it existed back then. Oh what was the class you ask? Business Law and Ethics!!!!!
Well talk about the irony and cognitive dissonance that follows.
"Fast talking excitable and positive."
Always walkway.
Interesting.
I love these sorts of stories. Must feel funny looking back and thinking all of the things mentioned in this video were going on but, at the time, nobody would have known
This is totally the thesis of a NYT best-seller (akin to a Malcolm Gladwell-type of book). You should consider it!
Its amazing how children are taught not to lie, when you're an adult, its almost expected...
I was thinking the exact same thing yesterday when I was in a supermarket. Some young toddler walked past me, all happy, friendly and inquisitive.
Shame when people get older they turn into selfish assholes that screw other people over.
The thinking is : don't lie until you're good at it.
@@TheNefastor I know a 4 year old who’s a masterful manipulator and lair
Children are tought not to lie to us that’s it but when u want your child to lie when it’s convient for you they will lie for u
We should teach kids to lie .. but not to their loved ones and people weaker then them.
Just discovered Coldfusiontv. Congratulations on a great coverage. It’s great to hear an Australian accent and an unbiased coverage. Thank you. G’day from Brisbane.
Great job with this video. The amount of info and the clarity in which is was presented along with the pacing is incredible. As someone who has attempted similar things I learned a lot watching your work. In 20 mins you explained a huge scandal ive never understood in a very entertaining video. Great job again....im so impressed.
Apparently, accounting teachers love this case
Can confirm
This is the company that we always talked about in our financial management subject
pretty much anyone who teaches business loves this case
Something similar is going to happen with crypto currency
@@AldoScotia why’s that my friend?
You only get "caught" if someone doesn't get their cut.
Yeah, important lesson. They've portrayed it well in War Dogs.
Exactly
Exactly play the game or get played
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Or the whole market tanks, or reporters get wind of a story, or the general public starts protesting, or another company gets caught doing the same trick, or a disgruntled fired employee decides to get revenge, or a million other things as well. All scams fail, except for absolute miracles making them true
Great channel! I remember the Enron thing .. I was a junior in HS, and kinda laughed at it.. a year later was 9/11... A few years later I was in the 2007 recession as a college grad.. . History is history. The Greeks said no civilization stays on top forever...
Great story. You should do a story on Chesapeake energy. It was once a high flying company, until illegal activity was investigated. Then the CEO committed apparent suicide. The company survived but later filed for bankruptcy. But it’s still in business today after restructuring
So in Enron, actually, in a sense. EOG resources is just enrons physical oil and gas production arm which was spun off of the company (I'll give you one guess what 'EOG' stands for, although, funnily, that abbreviation actually doesnt mean anything, legally). Worth north of 70 billion today, one of the largest north American shale drillers.
Their logo looks like E-corp from Mr Robot...
Seems like the Director of Mr Robot was inspired by Enron.
@@bobjoe8131 Yeah that would make a lot of sense
Enron was the inspiration for Evil Corp.
✌✌✌✌
thats what its supose to look like in mr. robot.
What I'm learning from these videos is that when something seems too smart, too complex - too hard to understand or replicate - beware. Same with figures bigger than life.
As Aldo Raine said: "Long story short, if something's too good to be true, it ain't". So true
“The entire cryptocurrency market disliked your comment”
Followed by “The entire NFT market just blocked you for saying that”.
If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.
@@john_blackthorne the thing is, in that movie it actually was exactly that lol
@@scoremxcom Basically his logic lol
Enronism: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by your CFO who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on six more.
Rumor is SBF watched this a couple of years ago and said: "Oh yeah?"
So that’s where the EvilCorp logo came from...
I was thinking the same thing...it had looked so familiar in the show.
Mmhmm
first thing i thought
Haha! Came here for that
had to google it and sure enough baby
The most distressing part of this story is just how intertwined with politics it is.
And even more distressing is how common it is.
@@pretzelstick320 I'd say it's really not that common for such a big and prominent company to have that kind of personal relationship to a specific political dynasty (The Bushes) and so blatantly influence politics in such an overt way as in the California recall election. I mean, it's such an obvious corporate attack on an entire state, and of course, a Democratic stronghold. The fact that the whole company was just a huge scam just makes it even more tragic.
Obviously I agree big companies in the US exert a lot of behind the scenes influence on politics, but in this case it's just so out in the open and clear and so directly tied to the Bush family and the Republican Party.
@@vincentgray870offer more details on your central banking recommendation, thanks
@@pretzelstick320 It's not so much 'common' as 'de rigeur'
Of course it is. You didn't think "government for the people, by the people" was a real thing, did you? Never has been, never will be.
Imagine trading the weather "I'll buy raindrops at £12 a drop"
Great vid about a very fascinating saga. Fun fact: Skilling’s new business basically went nowhere and was declared “Inactive” late last year. He’s basically nobody now.
Elizabeth Holmes' father was a VP for Enron. Lol.
Thank God she broke the cycle and grew up to be an honest, straight down the line leader of a company that changed the face of blood testing to the benefit of us all. Her voice oozes trust and her kind eyes reflect the beauty of her humanity.
@@peterd788 lmaoo
@@peterd788 Sarcasm level over 9000!
Peter D Savage comment, it needs to be a standalone.
i wonder how no one caught that
I was a kid at the time this went down, but I recall the owner of a small restaurant my family frequented saying that their electricity bill had risen to $5000 a month. It closed after several months of this. My understanding is that those who overpaid for electricity during this time were never reimbursed.
That’s absurd this company caused so much harm
@@CoolioTheMonkey I was one of those Californians paying outrageous electric bills. I could never understand that if California was electricity surplus why all of a sudden electricity went through the roof. I later heard that Skilling had a favorite joke, "What's the difference between California and the Titanic? - the Titanic had it's lights on when it was going down." What an arrogant asshole.
i was a teenager during that time. i remember my family's electric bill being $600 a month, and this was over 20 years ago. more than likely happened to that restaurant.
You have such a soothing voice, I listen while I’m working, lowers my stress level. Thanks!!
Not anymore FTX Fraud BLOWS this one OUT THE WATER
I actually met and befriended an older engineer that had his own engineering firm for many years. He told me the story on how his company partnered with Enron. He spend several million dollars on expanding his business and long story short was never paid what was due. When Enron fell so did his company along with many others that depended on Enron.
They owed AT&T MILLIONS.
And when AT&T tried to get Enron to pay, Enron got in their face.
So when Enron went belly up, AT&T tried to make up the loss from it's clients.
They tried that with us.
And we told their to their faces that Enron owed you $100 Million when they went belly up.
We paid out bills on time and if they didn't like that, there were other phone companies out there.
AT&T backed off.
You make your bed and you sleep in it !!
12:25 "George W Bush refused to step in, saying that his administration believed that intervention would not solve anything"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
well the man could barley read let alone count, what did people expect him to do? More cocaine?
Bush be like: Intervention? On a company? How about Iraqi invasion for dat oil?
LOL, the irony.
ikr its just to good literally an actual movie
Don't mind me... Just filling up my off shore back accounts....
Love your videos Dagogo ! This one was awesome.
Super interesting stuff as always. Background music sometimes too loud tho. Thanks for all your great material!
Once they bring in the bobcat to help with shredding papers, you know it’s time to look for a new job.
*you know it was time to look for a new job a year ago.
no death sentence no order
@@taqiyyaconcarne6908 yep, nothing to see here, uh huh *covertly shreds trump's pardon list*
Selling weather as a commodity? Honestly I'm so impressed by these guys I feel like robbing my own house.
Lol
It’s called engineering the weather. Look up the patents. If you can engineer a deluge you can sell futures on umbrellas.
It happens every day - it's called insurance fraud.....
You actually could rob your own house and, if you do it right, get away with it ...
😂😂😂😂
"Enron - The Biggest Fraud in History"
FTX - hold my beer.
That was before Bernie Madoff dropped his bomb.
@@amazinglife1068 yep I think we can say Madoff was even worse…
Great video, this should be shared widely. To expose these excuses for human beings, regrettably this will probably happen again
That genius asian man cashed out just at the right time
Still a fraud
He did the maths...
God Himself I don’t know how I feel about that...
I feel its more about networking. It is no surprise that the "big guys" always have easier time getting away. Like they somehow already know when the shit will hit the fan.
@@dissturbbed oh look kids! A real life dickhead!
I'd love to see an Enron movie in the style of "Wolf of Wall Street"- with dirt bike riding and a cameo from George W. Bush in his coke boy days.
This, with a highly satisfying "alternate reality ending" by Tarantino.
Simon Pegg would make a great Jeffrey Skilling
REGII RECORDS are you serious? How is that entertaining? That’s why these people do this... so they can be in the news and on tv and talked about when there dead... all while the zombies watch the spectacle... your just feeding into the entire system of HARM
REGII RECORDS lmao, I’ll write you a treatment for that if you want
Hell yeah - I'd even have a title for it. I'd call "The Smartest Guys in the Room" (a sardonic title, of course). It's taken from part of the title of a documentary about Enron that was made shortly after the scandal called "Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room".
What a great video! So well done and researched!
Thanks for explaining this scandal. I remember the brouhaha, but never understood how the money came from nowhere. ,
My mom, RIP, lost many tens of thousands of dollars at the hands of these f'in crooks. I think our judicial system is totally broken. Ken Lay had a home in Boca Raton, FL filled with millions in art - because in Florida, your home can't be taken, so you fill it up with valuable assets. My mom, and the millions of other stockholders that lost fortunes, should have gotten every penny from these bastards. They should have been penniless.
The US of AIDS rewards criminals with free stuff at taxpayers' expense. I hate the US, so I left it. :-) Nukes won't rain on me.
These a holes need to be shot, not jailed.
Diversity in your stock portfolio is always the answer
blame stupidity first.
@@hellatze FU you idiot. Did you forget that this was the largest swindle in history, and they were falsifying data to stockholders and investors? Of course not. You would have to know how to read. And you realize that the Chaiman committed suicide - right?
You do know that top level people went to prison - right dumb shit. Boy are you ignorant if you don't know the history of
15:26
... He paid fines with money he stole... So can I just rob a bank, go to jail, then pay a fraction of what I stole and keep the rest?
ya pretty much. You could even be the driver, rat on your friends, plant some cash on them, steal the rest and get a short sentence or none at all. Walk away with most of the cash and none of the jail time. Or you could just get a degree, work for Goldman Sachs, steal stuff in a way that makes parents proud and friends jealous. Third option is be happy as a common man
Clearly somebody doesn’t know how the economy works. “The common man” by that definition can be anything from a middle class halfwit to a hobo who can’t keep a job to save his life.
@@chaptap8376 shutup ya pleb
@@Pax_Veritas 1st option works but snitches get stiches and someone is gonna want your ass on a silver plater.
Fines are for the poor. Imagine if you a parking ticket costs $10 but the parking fine costs $1. They’re basically saying that you should park however you want and never pay up.
FTX says hold my beer.
Thank you so much for making this. I hope we can all learn form this and practice due diligence before sticking our neck out for a company or entity. If everyone does this, then we can minimize exploitation in this world.
Nice thought, but that's not how humans work. It's a fantasy dream.
“they were working on a streaming service with blockbuster”
wait, what?
Ok, basically, Blockbuster was competing with Netflix, they wanted to blow Netflix out of the water with streaming movies to your home like a good 6 years before it became decent. However, not only was the technology not really ready, Enron’s bankruptcy more or less killed any hope for this project to work.
Redbird7311 am I the only one who actually likes netflix
Ricardo Montanía hey buddy calm down i hate netflix
@@RicardoMontania easy there snapper
Calm down Netflix sux and everyone knows
The technology wasn't good enough to make it happen at the time. They weren't the only ones who tried to cash in on streaming before it was technologically possible. Look up "Pixelon" sometime. They tried to claim they could do it as early as 1999.
What sickens me the most out of all of this was that Enron used California’s energy to extort money from businesses. I could only imagine how frustrating it would be to not be able to rely on your electricity.
I cannot believe that people are missing the hole point. The last statement by the CFO at the end should worry every single one of us. The old saying “You don’t hold it you don’t own it” seems to prevail once more. Whatever they promise you, you cannot simply make gold out of thin air.
FTX surpassed the amount of money scammed.
it's just sad to see that every time a big company does fraud or collapses its the normal people who get affected the most
just like wars. fuck the system
Wait until this Pfizer vaccine fraud unravels. It will make Enron look like child’s play.
For everyone who is curious if Enron would not have been found out. They still would have gone bankrupt. The reason is because the debt never actually went away so eventually creditors would’ve wanted their money when the loans were due and since they did not really have the money this would’ve happened anyway
True, but during that time the executives at the top would have been living the dream for much longer than they ever deserved. This way, they went to jail and/or shot themselves years earlier.
If all their business investments were successful would they have gone under? ie the gas one in india.
@@ronelz999 Honestly? I think yes. All that would've changed is they'd have pushed things EVEN FURTHER, far beyond any reason.
they would probably fund the debt with their stock or borrow more money against their stock and cover it that way?
Love this channel and this vid is used in my Masters in Finance course, that's wild!
I wouldn't have lasted ten minutes sweeping the floors in a company like that. They would've fired me then collapsed, and I would've lmao'ed at them.
In my mind I am trying to picture how those employees felt when they got laid off. They must have looked back at all those 18 hour days, and lamented time they lost, and the sacrifice to their health. Those years they lived in fear of being rated a 5. All those times they invested that hard earned money into 401k. To give so much of your life to a company with the hope of having stability and to retire obe day, and in just one day is all gone.
like now
most of them come to work and do nothing all day anyhow.. so is it surpising?
It baffles me that in America those responsible only serve 5-12 years lmao. Skilling served 12. How is that even possible? People do much longer for less damaging crimes.
icvetz Financial crimes are in a different category than peasant crimes. And he probably served in a country club prison too.
@@icvetz Money & influence. That's how.
Funny thing: Jeff Skilling has a brother Tom who is a beloved meteorologist here is Chicago. These two couldn't be more opposite!!!
Or so you think...
Does he get to work on his own private chopper?
Wait, wasn't Enron trading the weather at one point. I'm alleging a connection.
Holy shit! I live in chicago and never realized the connection. BTW Tom had gastric bypass a year ago and lost almost a much weight as enron lost financially
Born and raised in Chicago for 46y and my favorite news channel is WGN and when I heard his name I immediately thought of the weather guy but I didn't make the connection until I read your comment wow bc he is a old loveable dork and I hope he's nothing like his brother
I've got a book about the Enron scandal. The diagrams showing how the money/assets/debt was moved about alone are fascinating.
SBF/FTX: "Hold my beer"
Skillings is out and at it again. Sheesh. You'd think they'd have some kind of Financial Offender Registry or something, like they do with sex offenders.
I think they do. Here most are on a list for 10 years after their sentence is up. And now days, due to some people understanding our laws, anybody can google your name and find out if you are a criminal (or well, if you have been caught that is..). This includes driving too fast etc so you need to pay like 12 bucks to know what z person did.
Average person can be barred from applying for a job in the financial sector for having bad credit, let alone fraud. Meanwhile, CEOs can do fraud and just return to post when they get out of jail? Modern society is not free or equal.
I heard that he's found Christ and will donate all his earnings to Mother Theresa's foundation in Calcutta...so please all you naysayers give the guy another chance! /S
In more developed countries he would be prohibited from owning or doing business for about 10 years on top of the jail sentence.
Involved in another pyramid scheme then.. nice.
When I was in school Enron came to recruit. All of their executives came across as extremely arrogant and cocky. They seemed high on their own hype. They claimed to pick the best of the best: smart, self starters and risk takers to work in their company. Unfortunately not all that shines is gold. In this case, as it turned out, underneath they were just a big scam.
"What would it be like?....to have everything, and then to lose it? would it have been better to never have had it at all?"
-Michael Morton
Same they came to my highschool in Canada for our advanced business admin course this was sept of 2000.
Bally total fitness was the enron of the fitness industry in 90s. I worked there and met some of the shadiest people that ive ever met in my life.
FTX... Hold my beer.
I NOW UNDERSTAND THE REFERENCE IN THE BEE MOVIE WHEN THEY SAID “HONRON”
Wow you just made me realise that!
I'm seriously watching all of these to fill in random references I've heard
Fun With Duck and Jane (the new one) is about Enron
🤣🤣🤣
I once played a very small part in building an exhibition set for Enron. It was held on the week the scandal was unfolding in London. These super rich millionaire execs were full of fun, but by the last day were busted & jobless. It was a weird situation.
Of all the things I doubt on the internet… I think this is authentic and honestly that’s an awesome life experience. Seeing people so high brought so low is a very grounding experience.
Good. Greedy bastards.
Sounds similar to when events were shut down in March 2020 due to Covid. I was working at an event that ended on the first day even though it was sunny and there was no visible threat, it was weird.
And yet neocons still insisting that no regulation at all is he best possible way to go.
Ftx is like: “…hold my beer…”
Sam Bankman-Fried "Hold my beer"
1:22
Weather: *Happens ⛅️*
Enron: *STONKS📈*
You learn something new everyday 😂
My aunt worked at Enron in the UK, (Even though she is American) After all of corruption she was one of the final employees and was put in charge of trying to get Enron out of bankruptcy. She tells me so many stories about her time there and how bad it really was.
evidence please
She should write about it, honestly seems super interesting
This would be very interesting to hear about for many people. She could write a blog about it, doesn't even have to be that long :)
Wow what a marvelous story
Interesting if it’s true, but this kinda feels like an r/thathappened comment
This is really great content mate thank you
I love how America really hasn't changed in a century. Instead of outlaws on horseback robbing stagecoaches they now wear business suits and a smile.
You cant be serious. There is zero similarity
@@cragerzz K
and while you let your emotions give you tunnel vision to find "snakes in suits" the real criminals are siphoning off you on mainstreet
the large smile with all teeth showing - thats how to spot the urban wolf
Ummm a century ago the biggest fraud occurred by people in suits, the federal reserve.
That "social credit score" the CEO pushed reminds me of something similar tried in Orange, a telecomms company in France after it was privatised.
Executives were ranked according to the profit and revenues they gave to the company. However, in France it is very hard to actually fire someone for no reason (and if it's found out that you fired someone wrongly, they can sue for plenty of damage), and therefore they used other tricks to push them out, including depriving them of meaningful work, moving them across the country, refusing to listen to their reports, etc.
It ended up with a wave of suicides and the CEO of Orange at the time is now facing criminal charges.
same thing they do in japan
@@udittlamba afaik its more of a cultural thing there, as they are workaholics
so ofc they'd use this method
FTX: "Hold my Beer"
"Hold my beer!" - Sam Bankman-Fried
"It was his administration to believe, that intervention, wouldn't solve anything." As he intervened in Iraqi politics and invaded.
This shit I so funny bruh
Obama preferred Syria 🇸🇾
@@TheTravisTube obama prefers remote drone strikes on civilians
I'll never forget the part of the "The Smartest Guy In The Room" when Enron employees are organising rolling blackouts to increase stock prices and senior citizens are dying as a result.
Yea, there’s no guilt in greed.
I sold a couple luxury cars to a family here in Houston. Husband was a trader for Enron on assignment in California. Husband was a co-sign on the first purchase. “Mrs. X, what is your husband’s annual income?”. “Just put down $400,000k, it’s something like that”.
I made $90,000k that year working 2 jobs, needless to say I was a bit shocked considering I lived in the same neighborhood as them.
@Insert Name Here I was too young to really know if Davis screwed up elsewhere, but he definitely got the blame for the Enron backlash which looks increasingly unfair in restrospect.
The most I can say for the Governator is . . . He was not a good governor but he did and still does genuinely believe that elections should fairly reflect the will of the people.
So, more admirable than anyone who was making decisions for Enron.
Oh yeah and all those people who needed power to survive. Like in a surgery or attached to a ventilator
The most distressing part of this story is just how intertwined with politics it is.
@@blankshaliburton277 You can't have one (politics) without the other (corruption).
Enron: the biggest scam in history
FTX: allow me to introduce myself…
Still feels strange seeing vids on this as I grew up on the Outskirts of Houston in the 90's and 2000's. So...this took place pretty much in my back yard.
The selfish gene is one of the most misunderstood books. While Dawkins mentions our 'selfish gene' he goes on to say that humans are unique in that we are better suited when working together as opposed to also being selfish
He definitely didn't read the biggest footnote which is the book. Smh
Peter Moore I mean given the people in this story, that seems totally realistic
@@eddixon2015 the point is that humans always progress more when we work together vs oppose eachother, which history shows to be true.
Sam Cavanagh I’m with you. I just think that it’s pretty stupid that a guy who built company ethos around a book didn’t understand what the book was saying.
@@eddixon2015 yeah true. I don't think he was very smart