Ken Lay 1942–
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Media Coverage of Ceos: Who? What? Where? When? Why?
Media Coverage of CEOs: Who? What? Where? When? Why? James T. Hamilton Sanford Institute of Public Policy Duke University [email protected] Richard Zeckhauser Kennedy School of Government Harvard University [email protected] Draft prepared for March 5-6, 2004 Workshop on the Media and Economic Performance, Stanford Institute for International Studies, Center on Development, Democracy, and the Rule of Law. We thank Stephanie Houghton and Pavel Zhelyazkov for expert research assistance. Media Coverage of CEOs: Who? What? Where? When? Why? Abstract: Media coverage of CEOs varies predictably across time and outlets depending on the audience demands served by reporters, incentives pursued by CEOs, and changes in real economic indicators. Coverage of firms and CEOs in the New York Times is countercyclical, with declines in real GDP generating increases in the average number of articles per firm and CEO. CEO credit claiming follows a cyclical pattern, with the number of press releases mentioning CEOs and profits, earnings, or sales increasing as monthly business indicators increase. CEOs also generate more press releases with soft news stories as the economy and stock market grow. Major papers, because of their focus on entertainment, offer a higher percentage of CEO stories focused on soft news or negative news compared to CEO articles in business and finance outlets. Coverage of CEOs is highly concentrated, with 20% of chief executives generating 80% of coverage. Firms headed by celebrity CEOs do not earn higher average shareholder returns in the short or long run. For some CEOs media coverage equates to on-the-job consumption of fame. -
Enron's Pawns
Enron’s Pawns How Public Institutions Bankrolled Enron’s Globalization Game byJim Vallette and Daphne Wysham Sustainable Energy and Economy Network Institute for Policy Studies March 22, 2002 About SEEN The Sustainable Energy and Economy Network, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies (Washington, DC), works in partnership with citizens groups nationally and globally on environment, human rights and development issues with a particular focus on energy, climate change, environmental justice, and economic issues, particularly as these play out in North/South relations. SEEN views these issues as inextricably linked to global security, and therefore applies a human security paradigm as a framework for guiding its work. The reliance of rich countries on fossil fuels fosters a climate of insecurity, and a rationale for large military budgets in the North. In the South, it often fosters or nurtures autocratic or dictatorial regimes and corruption, while exacerbating poverty and destroying subsistence cultures and sustainable livelihoods. A continued rapid consumption of fossil fuels also ensures catastrophic environmental consequences: Climate change is a serious, emerging threat to the stability of the planet's ecosystems, and a particular hazard to the world's poorest peo- ple. The threat of climate change also brings more urgency to the need to reorient energy-related investments, using them to provide abundant, clean, safe energy for human needs and sustainable livelihoods. SEEN views energy not as an issue that can be examined in isolation, but rather as a vital resource embedded in a development strategy that must simultaneously address other fundamentals, such as education, health care, public par- ticipation in decision-making, and economic opportunities for the poorest. -
A Case of Corporate Deceit: the Enron Way / 18 (7) 3-38
NEGOTIUM Revista Científica Electrónica Ciencias Gerenciales / Scientific e-journal of Management Science PPX 200502ZU1950/ ISSN 1856-1810 / By Fundación Unamuno / Venezuela / REDALYC, LATINDEX, CLASE, REVENCIT, IN-COM UAB, SERBILUZ / IBT-CCG UNAM, DIALNET, DOAJ, www.jinfo.lub.lu.se Yokohama National University Library / www.scu.edu.au / Google Scholar www.blackboard.ccn.ac.uk / www.rzblx1.uni-regensburg.de / www.bib.umontreal.ca / [+++] Cita / Citation: Amol Gore, Guruprasad Murthy (2011) A CASE OF CORPORATE DECEIT: THE ENRON WAY /www.revistanegotium.org.ve 18 (7) 3-38 A CASE OF CORPORATE DECEIT: THE ENRON WAY EL CASO ENRON. Amol Gore (1) and Guruprasad Murthy (2) VN BRIMS Institute of Research and Management Studies, India Abstract This case documents the evolution of ‘fraud culture’ at Enron Corporation and vividly explicates the downfall of this giant organization that has become a synonym for corporate deceit. The objectives of this case are to illustrate the impact of culture on established, rational management control procedures and emphasize the importance of resolute moral leadership as a crucial qualification for board membership in corporations that shape the society and affect the lives of millions of people. The data collection for this case has included various sources such as key electronic databases as well as secondary data available in the public domain. The case is prepared as an academic or teaching purpose case study that can be utilized to demonstrate the manner in which corruption creeps into an ambitious organization and paralyses the proven management control systems. Since the topic of corporate practices and fraud management is inherently interdisciplinary, the case would benefit candidates of many courses including Operations Management, Strategic Management, Accounting, Business Ethics and Corporate Law. -
Former Enron Broadband Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Rice Sentenced on Securities Fraud Charge
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRM MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2007 PH: (202) 514-2007 WWW.USDOJ.GOV/ TDD: (202) 514-1888 Former Enron Broadband Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Rice Sentenced on Securities Fraud Charge WASHINGTON – Kenneth Rice, a former chief executive officer of Enron Broadband Services (EBS), was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to forfeit approximately $15 million to be used to compensate victims of the Enron fraud, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division announced today. Rice was sentenced today at a hearing before Judge Vanessa Gilmore at U.S. District Court in Houston. Rice pleaded guilty on July 20, 2004 to the securities fraud charge, and cooperated with the government’s investigation into the collapse of Enron. Rice admitted that while he was at EBS, a unit of the now-defunct Enron Corp., he and others made a series of false statements about the products, services and business performance of EBS in order to mislead investors and others about the success of the company and to inflate artificially the price of Enron stock. Rice admitted that while serving as EBS’s CEO, he conspired with others to make false statements about the company’s development of various software capabilities and its fiber-optic network. Rice admitted that he falsely portrayed EBS as a commercial and business success, and falsely claimed that network control software developed by EBS was “up and running” – when in fact the software had not progressed beyond the internal development stage. These and other misrepresentations, including a failure to disclose to the investing public that the company stood to sustain operating losses in 2001, contributed to a sharp rise in Enron’s stock price. -
P:\Heather\Opinions to Be Docketed\04Cr025 Full Document.Wpd
Case 4:04-cr-00025 Document 494 Filed in TXSD on 10/17/05 Page 1 of 68 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS HOUSTON DIVISION UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, § § Plaintiff, § § v. § CRIMINAL NUMBER H-04-025-SS § RICHARD A. CAUSEY, JEFFERY K. § SKILLING, and KENNETH L. LAY, § § Defendants. § MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Pending before the court are Kenneth L. Lay’s Motion to Dismiss the Securities Fraud and Wire Fraud Counts of the Second Superseding Indictment [Defense Motion No. 2] (Docket Entry No. 386),1 and Jeffery K. Skilling’s Motion to Dismiss Counts 23, 24, 26, and to Strike Various Allegations as Prejudicial Surplusage [Defense Motion No. 4] (Docket Entry No. 394).2 The pending motions challenge charges brought against Lay for securities fraud and wire fraud and against Skilling for securities fraud as part of a 53-count Second Superseding Indictment ((SSI) Docket Entry No. 97). For the following reasons the motions will be denied. 1By notice filed with the court, Lay’s co-defendants join in this motion. See Jeffrey Skilling’s Joinder in Support of Defendant Kenneth Lay’s Defense Motions (Defense Motions Nos. 1 and 2)(Docket Entry No. 392); and Notice of Joinder (Docket Entry No. 420), executed by all three defendants. 2By notice filed with the court, Skilling’s co-defendants join in this motion. See Defendant Richard A. Causey’s Joinder in Various Defense Motions (Docket Entry No. 376)); Kenneth L. Lay’s Notice of Joinder of Co-Defendants’ Motions (Docket Entry No. 380); and Notice of Joinder (Docket Entry No. -
EN RON CORP. NOTICE of ANNUAL MEETING of SHAREHOLDERS May 2, 2000
EN RON CORP. NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS May 2, 2000 To THE S I-I AREHOLDERS: Notice is hereby given that the annual meeting of shareholders of Enton Corp. ("Enron") will be held in the LaSalle Ballroom of the Doubletree Hotel at Allen Center, 400 Dallas Street, Houston, Texas. at 10:00 a.m. Houston time on Tuesday, May 2, 2000, for the following purposes: I. To elect eighteen directors of Enron to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders and until their respective successors are duly elected and qualified; 2. To ratify the Board of Directors' appointment of Arthur Andersen LLP, independent public accountants, as Enton's auditors for the year ending December 31, 2000; 3. To consider a shareholder proposal from Brent Blackwelder, President, Friends of the Earth Action; 4. To consider a shareholder proposal from Dr. Julia M. Wershing; and 5. To transact such other business as may properly be brought before the meeting or any adjoumment(s) thereof. Holders of record of Enron Common Stock and Cumulative Second Preferred Convertible Stock at the close of business on March 3. 2000. will be entitled to notice of and to vote at the meeting or any adjoumment(s) thereof. Shareholders who do not expect to attend the meeting are requested to sign and return the enclosed proxy, for which a postage·paid, return envelope is enclosed. The proxy must be signed and returned in order to be counted. By Order of the Board of Directors, REBECCA C. CARTER Senior Vice President, Board Communications and Secretary Houston. -
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Managing Corporate Reputation and Risk.Pdf
Managing Corporate Reputation and Risk Developing a Strategic Approach to Corporate Integrity Using Knowledge Management This Page Intentionally Left Blank Managing Corporate Reputation and Risk Developing a Strategic Approach to Corporate Integrity Using Knowledge Management D N Amsterdam Boston Heidelberg London New York Oxford Paris San Diego San Francisco Singapore Sydney Tokyo Butterworth–Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier. Copyright © , Dale Neef. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Recognizing the importance of preserving what has been written, Elsevier Science prints its books on acid-free paper whenever possible. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Neef, Dale, – Managing corporate reputation and risk / Dale Neef. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN --- . Corporate image. Corporations—Moral and ethical aspects. Business ethics. Integrity. Risk management. Knowledge management. I. Title. HD..N .–dc British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The publisher offers special discounts on bulk orders of this book. For information, please contact: Manager of Special Sales Elsevier Science Wheeler Road Burlington, MA Tel: -- Fax: -- For information on all Butterworth–Heinemann publications available, -
JEFF D. MAKHOLM Senior Vice President National Economic
JEFF D. MAKHOLM Senior Vice President National Economic Research Associates, Inc. 200 Clarendon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02116 (617) 927-4540 Dr. Makholm concentrates on the issues surrounding the privatization, regulation and deregulation of energy and transportation industries—those that operate networks (such as oil and gas pipelines, electricity transmission and gas distribution systems, telecommunications and water utility systems) and those operating infrastructure business at specific sites, such as oil refineries, electricity generation plants, gas treatment plants, sewage treatment plants and airports. These issues include the broad categories of efficient pricing, market definition and the components of reasonable regulatory practices. Specific pricing issues include tariff design, incentive ratemaking, and the unbundling of prices and services, and analysis of energy commodities markets. Issues of market definition include assessments of mergers, including the identification and measurement of market power. Issues of reasonable regulatory practices include the creation of credible and sustainable accounting rules for ratemaking as well as the establishment of administrative procedures for regulatory rulemaking and adjudication. On such issues among others, Dr. Makholm has prepared expert testimony, reports and statements, and has appeared as an expert witness in many states, federal and U.S. district court proceedings as well as before regulatory bodies and Parliamentary panels abroad. Dr. Makholm’s clients in the United States include privately held oil, gas and utility corporations, public corporations and government agencies. He has represented dozens of gas and electric distribution utilities, as well as both intrastate and interstate oil and gas pipeline companies and oil, gas and electricity producers. Dr. Makholm has also worked with many leading law firms engaged in issues pertaining to the local and interstate regulation of energy utilities. -
Liquid Assets: Enron's Dip Into Water Business Highlights Pitfalls of Privatization
Liquid Assets: Enron's Dip into Water Business Highlights Pitfalls of Privatization A special report by Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program Washington, D.C. March 2002 Liquid Assets: Enron's Dip into Water Business Highlights Pitfalls of Privatization A special report by Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program Washington, D.C. March 2002 This document can be viewed or downloaded at www.citizen.org/cmep. Public Citizen 215 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E. Washington, D.C. 20003 202-546-4996 fax: 202-547-7392 [email protected] www.citizen.org/cmep © 2002 Public Citizen. All rights reserved. Public Citizen, founded by Ralph Nader in 1971, is a non-profit research, lobbying and litigation organization based in Washington, D.C. Public Citizen advocates for consumer protection and for government and corporate accountability, and is supported by over 150,000 members throughout the United States. Liquid Assets: Enron's Dip into Water Business Highlights Pitfalls of Privatization Executive Summary The story of Enron Corp.’s failed venture into the water business serves as a cautionary tale for consumers and policymakers about the dangers of turning publicly operated water systems and resources over to private corporations and creating a private “market” system in which water can be traded as a commodity, as Enron did with electricity and tried to do with water. Enron’s water investments, which contributed to the company’s spectacular collapse, would not have been permitted had the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA) been properly enforced and not continually weakened by the deregulation initiatives advocated by Enron and other energy companies. -
Enron: Market Exploitation and Correction
Financial Decisions, Spring 2002, Article 1. Enron: Market Exploitation And Correction Ronnie J. Clayton William Scroggins Christopher Westley1 Department of Finance, Economics and Accounting, Jacksonville State University Abstract This paper chronicles the rise and fall of Enron, Inc., the once powerful energy firm based in Houston, Texas. The history of the firm is reviewed, the November 2001 financial restatement is examined to show the impact of the failure to report the appropriate financial position for the firm, and reasons for the firm’s downfall are considered. While Enron’s decline may currently be considered a market failure, it is likely that the events surrounding the firm in 2001 will ultimately be considered a case in which the market worked to ferret out deception and poor judgment on the part of Enron’s management. I. Introduction Early in the year 2002 one could not escape the continuing publicity concerning the once powerful, now bankrupt, Enron, Inc. In a span of less than two months during the autumn of 2001, the firm fell from business idol to congressional doormat, or somewhat more importantly, from the new business model to a model of business greed and ultimate failure. Of course the fall of Enron did not occur in the few days of October and November 2001. The event that started it all was the 1993 formation, in partnership with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), of the Joint Energy Development Investment Limited Partnership (JEDI).2 The ultimate failure was designed by JEDI and set into place in a galaxy not so far away and in a time not so long ago. -
Corporate Heroin: a Defense of Perks James C
University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics Economics 2004 Corporate Heroin: A Defense of Perks James C. Spindler M. Todd Henderson Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/law_and_economics Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation James C. Spindler & M. Todd Henderson, "Corporate Heroin: A Defense of Perks" (John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics Working Paper No. 221, 2004). This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CHICAGO JOHN M. OLIN LAW & ECONOMICS WORKING PAPER NO. 221 (2D SERIES) Corporate Heroin: A Defense of Perks, Executive Loans, and Conspicuous Consumption M. Todd Henderson and James C. Spindler THE LAW SCHOOL THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO September 2004 This paper can be downloaded without charge at: The Chicago Working Paper Series Index: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/Lawecon/index.html and at the Social Science Research Network Electronic Paper Collection: http://ssrn.com/abstract_id=597661 Corporate Heroin: † A Defense of Perks, Executive Loans, and Conspicuous Consumption M. Todd Henderson and James C. Spindler* Abstract: We argue that firms undertake to reduce employee savings in order to avoid final period problems that occur when employees accumulate enough wealth to retire and leave the industry. Normally, reputation constrains employee behavior, since an employee who “cheats” at one firm will then find herself unable to get a job at another. -
Classic Case Studies in Accounting Fraud”
“Classic Case Studies in Accounting Fraud” A thesis submitted to the Miami University Honors Program in partial fulfillment of the requirements for University Honors. by Justin Matthew Mock May 2004 Oxford, Ohio ABSTRACT “Classic Case Studies in Accounting Fraud” by Justin Matthew Mock Over the past several years, accounting fraud has dominated the headlines of mainstream news. While these recent cases all involve sums of money far in excess of any before, accounting fraud is certainly not a new phenomenon. Since the early days on Wall Street, fraud has consistently fooled the markets, investors, and auditors alike. In this thesis, an analysis of several cases of accounting fraud is conducted with background information, fraud logistics, and accounting and auditing violations all subject to study. This paper discusses specific cases of fraud and presents the issues that have been and must continue to be addressed as companies push the envelope of acceptable accounting standards. The discussion and findings demonstrate the ever-present potential for fraud in a variety of accounts, companies, industries, and time periods, while also having a powerful influence on an auditor’s work and preconceptions going forward. iii iv “Classic Case Studies in Accounting Fraud” by Justin Matthew Mock Approved by: _________________________, Advisor Dr. Phil Cottell _________________________, Reader Dr. Larry Rankin _________________________, Reader Mr. Jeffrey Vorholt Accepted by: __________________________, Director, University Honors Program v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “Classic Case Studies in Accounting Fraud” was completed under the direction of the Miami University Honors Program. The Honors Program provided financial support essential to the project’s research and successful completion.