Keano C. Bayan BSAC 1-1 ENRON REFLECTION PAPER Money is the root of all evil, accompanied by greed and the desire of power. This is what led to the collapse of the American-owned energy company in the name of Enron. Enron had a scandal involving fraudulence, taking advantage of the deregulation of the oil and gas industry in the 1970s. In the eyes of the public, the company was booming in its business operations, even named as one of the highest-earning companies in the United States. From the history of this business, Enron did not engage in unethical operations, only in the pursuit of personal wealth and the higher power was greed able to infiltrate the company, leading to involvement in extreme incentive schemes to attract potential investors. What's very surprising with this is how long these schemes existed and have operated and how they managed to deceive the public and their investors. The use of mark-to-market contract valuations resulted in inflated profits and revenues that they did not even earn for a few years, masking underlying poor profitability in key areas of the company. This level of ingenuity should have just been put into honest and ethical work practices instead of creating schemes just to produce hidden funds. We, as professionals in the business administration and accounting fields, should always follow the law and observe ethical practices. The proposed Sorbanes-Oxley Act along with other laws are beneficial not only to the public but also to those who are interested in engaging in businesses and possible investors in companies because these laws prohibit any acts of accounting fraud and holding those offenders criminally liable for these deceptive schemes and operations. As a future certified public accountant, this will help me practice and maintain integrity in my work as an accountant. I will also be more cautious in working and investing at sketchy corporations. I learned a lot about how we should all be a hundred percent transparent with our work, not because we are required to, but because it is just basic human decency. We should always hold those who commit these acts of crime, especially those that affect the welfare of innocent workers. This helped me evaluate how much we need laws that protect integrity.
