Justice versus conscience

The only surprising thing about the Enron scandal was that people were held accountable and jailed for it.

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.

Its amazing how children are taught not to lie, when you’re an adult, its almost expected…

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!

Apparently, accounting teachers love this case

“If I could go back and redo things, I wouldn’t” probably the only honest words out of Skilling’s gob

Jeffrey Skilling out of prison early 2019 and starting up a new energy company backed by a former Enron executive, what a wonderful world

“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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Anyone want to know how a man could get 12 years in jail for weed in the same years this happens and these guys stole billions and got out after 12 years? Lol yes that’s the world we live on

It seems to me that the main problem was that they DIDN’T mark to market. Whenever a deal went South and was worth zero (or more likely negative due to future liabilities), they just kept the fantasy profits in the books. That’s not mark to market- it’s fraud!

My parents actually worked at Enron Broadband at the end of Enron’s existence. My dad actually helped put together the technology proposal for Blockbuster deal. From what I understand, the issue wasn’t as much that the technology wasn’t capable, but more that the upper management wasn’t interested in actually making the project work because it wasn’t a pet project of theirs. Enron Broadband actually had a number of really bright people (I know I’m biased, shut up) who really knew their stuff, but the problem was that the upper echelons of Enron management were only interested in making quick cash.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

All that American politicians learned from ENRON was to never let big businesses die so they don’t have to see tide of employees leave with boxes of their belongings out the door in the news media. That’s why all those bailouts routinely occur. The idea “too big to fail” policy started with ENRON and was implemented to protect the banks and corporations moving forward using taxpayer money.

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.

It’s wild that Executives can do this and still cash out in millions. Instead they should be stripped of all assets and serve full jail terms without parole.

I honestly don’t believe Kenneth Lay died of a heart attack while on vacation. It’s also amazing how Skilling only served as much time as somebody that sells drugs.

Funny thing: Jeff Skilling has a brother Tom who is a beloved meteorologist here is Chicago. These two couldn’t be more opposite!!!

I remember how big of a deal Enron’s demise was but I was a little kid. I had NO IDEA how much of an insane ruthless venture this was.

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

“If you have a company and it can’t explain in one sentence….what it does…it’s illegal.” – Lewis Black

It’s crazy how many people were in on it. Their accounting company shredding all of those docs means they were fully aware

I red a great book about the Enron story 13 years ago. The greed, corruption, lying, and complete lack of morals and ethics that took place throughout Enron was, and still is, epic. How anyone in their right mind could trust Skilling today is beyond my comprehension. Although I think Fastow was the top evil “shylocker” at Enron.

Those that “invest” in Skilling’s new venture really deserve what they ultimately get!

My dad was a financial advisor who shared a building with a Houston law firm that was representing people related to the case. Everyone had to be escorted when in the building, as there were large balconies and they were worried about suicides.

Weird how criminals always donate to the supposed “law and order” party.

The most distressing part of this story is just how intertwined with politics it is.

I only had two accounting classes but both of them made the students study and learn about Enron and Worldcom. Creative accounting has caused massive damage to this country and they dont want anyone to forget it.

The issue isn’t Enron, it’s the rest of entities that legitimized it.

Dagogo, great work on your videos… The editing, the research… it’s all high level content… Keep it up! Cheers!

I literally didn’t know about this until now. You’d think something this severe would come up more frequently.

Thanks for this video. I am just old enough to remember the scandal happening while I was at university but didn’t know the actual details. I joined Ernst & Young in Malaysia in 2002 as an auditor and remember auditing practices being more strict all because of Enron. EY in Malaysia even had Arthur Anderson equipment in their offices ;). My sister was actually working for AA in Hong Kong while all this was going down.

The biggest scam in the world is YouTube putting 3 to 4 ads in between videos.

Was working at a chemical plant around that time that had a dock and storage that was owned or leased by Enron. I still remember getting off work and everyone was watching those poor enron employees walk to the gate with their boxes of shit from their offices and lockers. Most of them were close to retirement and obviously lost it all.

You only get “caught” if someone doesn’t get their cut.

“It was his administration to believe, that intervention, wouldn’t solve anything.” As he intervened in Iraqi politics and invaded.

Enron fascinates me for the way that it’s perpetrators kept bluffing to the last second. I think it offers insight into the mind of people who catch themselves in a con with no exit strategy.

My late sister used to live in suburban Houston. She told me that virtually everyone in that area was affected one way or another by the Enron collapse.

A LOT of the employees knew that something wasn’t 100 percent legit with the company but they were making good money so just ignore it and hope it doesn’t explode when your still at the company. Same goes for the subprime mortgage crisis.

Man I love this stuff, I love seeing how completely idiotic people are falling for these absurd investment scams.

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

This episode was great. To me, it was a lesson in corporate greed, sociopathy, and megalomania in a 20 minute video.

Hi Dagogo. Great Video. I was a schoolmate of yours in highschool. I’m glad your videos are as in depth as they are, you have your father’s depth of detail. He helped me one recess understand harmonic waves to help me understand my guitar better. I hope you are all well and please continue making great content. 666 \m/

I remember my summer at enron in 1999. I was 22 years old and applied for the internship at my campuses “welcome” office. My mentor was very out going and seemed like he didnt care. We learned how to read charts, learned basic excel and met some people working in certain departments. Pretty chill place, didn’t feel like they were out to get anyone.

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

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.

“I think we should implement a bonus program that pays out for ideas before they’re implemented and we can found out if they work or not.” “That’s a brilliant idea! Have a bonus!”

I went to the UMN and my corporate ethics professor gave Andy Fastnow, CFO of Enron, a ride from the airport to campus to give a speech on the Enron scandal. He said Fastnow was a brilliant guy who really seemed to have turned his life around after being sentenced to prison time. Recently he has been giving speeches on the importance of ethical business and financials.

What I always wonder is if any of the energy traders who created artificial blackouts were charged.

If anyone who worked there had have asked, “where the money was coming from,” they would have aroused the suspicion of those above them in the pecking order. After a while the high-ups would have amassed enough reasons to get rid of them.

Absolutely dispicable, they are just theifs and it doesnt seem like enough of them were held accountable.

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.

Amazing. Great vids! I watched the Theranos vid before this and now this one. Great work, thank you for creating and sharing this level of (REAL) journalism. It is truly appreciated.

Selling weather as a commodity? Honestly I’m so impressed by these guys I feel like robbing my own house.

At 7:57 you said that Indian govt cant purchase the Enron electricity, although you are true for the most part, the fact was that Enron tried to sell electricity of 11 INR /Unit which was far more than 0.35 INR/Unit which Indian govt procure its electricity for other sources. So it was right that the Indian government didn’t wanna buy electricity at that outrageous price cause they were not fools. PS- Even two decades later, the domestic electricity price is 8 INR/Unit in India

I lived in NorCal during Enron’s control of the energy grid. With frequent brown-outs, we knew that something was amiss. The Smartest Guys In the Room is a great documentary on the Enron debacle.

That’s wild: I was apparently-mistakenly remembering the ENRON scandal as an early-1990s thing… Thanks for the refresher! My (faulty) memory was that the biggest scandal was not loss of jobs, but that most ENRON employees had their 401Ks in ENRON stock, making them all worthless in days.

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.”

Dagogo, stumbled into the Theranos story by accident, loved it. Followed up with Enron. Subscribed and spreading the word. Great job. Really enjoy your work.

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.

They overemphasized making deals without out ever focusing on carrying out those deals, which created a massive whole in their cash flow, especially when you look at their bonus payouts on those deal closures.

The mythology of Enron is a complex one for people to understand… until everyone realized that they weren’t supposed to. The people who ran it made sure nobody understood how they worked… because there wasn’t anything to understand to begin with. Thanks for such an interesting video.

Mark-to-market accounting sounds like a concept engineered by lawyers as a way to drum up new business from high net worth clients who have been indicted for fraud.

Very informative video. At least one good thing that came out of this is tighter guidelines on accounting practices.

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.

As a graduate of accountacy and currently accountant, this scandal will always be included in every Auditing, specifically the Sarbanes-Oaxley and Understanding the Internal Control discussions especially that Enron also brought down with them a famous auditing firm called Arthur Andersen. PS. Their methods of lies on accounting methods are somewhat similar to our government structure in our country. Most, if not all, higher ups keep taking government money for personal spending and make it look like a ‘project’ or a canvassed necessity of the agency at triple the price. Embezzlement in the government is worse than Enron’s scandal in my opinion because for decades, history repeats itself and no one will whistleblow, if there is any… mostly it’s not a good type of whislteblowing. Decent and righteous accountants will lose their minds, speaking from experience and this is why most government accountants here never lasted on a gov’t agency because it’s either they moved to a company with a lesser corrupted environment(mostly private ones) or… they got pushed to the Other Side(if you know what I mean). These goes same for Auditors too.

ColdFusion – “Enron is the biggest fraud in history!” Bernie Madoff – “Am I a joke to you?”

This channel deserves an appreciation post. Three cheers for Cold Fusion!

Literally used as a case study for many of my finance and economic classes

Can i just say that this was an extraordinary YouTube video! Great job, keep up the good work fellas!

My dad actually worked for Enron just as like a lower level employee and I’ve always wanted to know more. Great video man:)

What is amazing to me is how nobody is being prosecuted for the failure of General Electric which did a lot more financial tomfoolery.

I wish I worked at Enron during its heyday. The Smartest Guys in the Room is an outstanding book if anyone is really interested in reading a very well-written account about the rise and fall of Enron.

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.

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.”

Enron was also the largest force behind the Kyoto Accords. It stood to make a killing by hosting the world carbon credit trading platform and for which is started the major wind energy boom of the 90’s building wind turbines. This division was sold for peanuts to GE in the bankruptcy.

Commending you for a very clear and straightforward storytelling

I remember hearing about this in the news back in the days, had no idea what was happening till now.

This just shows how incredibly competitive the financial markets are; it’s actually easier to be clever enough to circumvent the system and find loopholes, than it is to play the game honestly.

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

YIKES. I just heard my Financing teacher talk about this case, but I did not think that it was this bad. I am glad that there was at least an end to the company for this.

“It’s with Kenny Boy that the story starts.” You know this is gonna be good

And we had 911 at the same time. This is so telling, but people still put their heads in the sand. This is a great piece!

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.

thank you, the reason I watched this was because I rewatched Superhero Movie, and in one of the scenes Robert Hay’s character was dying said something like “withdraw all our investments from a little company called Google and put it on Enron” now I know lol

Well, Enron was a pretty good one, but for the title of Biggest of All Time, I’m sticking with the War on Drugs.

The “smartest” guys in the room weren’t smart enough to realize there’s more to life than making a buck.

Enron had promised to supply electric power to Maharashtra @ Rs. 5 for 5 years: and built his empire on this deal but was suddenly denied the deal: this also contributed to its collapse.

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

This documentary finally solved a question id had for Years- why when i was a kid my town had so many rolling blackouts We were in a high end area, and my parents always paid on time so wasnt like it was simply half the town not paying their bills Suddenly it all becomes clear

Good Job Cold Fusion for bringing such real stories… already Subscribed.

Wow. Enron nearly bankrupted the utility i work for. It was at that time California deregulated the electric utilities meaning they could not generate their own power they sell and must purchase it through other suppliers. Enter Enron. Enron was selling electricity for nearly 10 times what the utilities were generating it for. Nearly bankrupted all of California utilities. While I am only a mechanic for the utility, it nearly cost all of us our jobs.

I’m from the Philippines my dad used to work for enron, we were well off during those times and enron paid for my mother’s life saving surgery before they went bankrupt, enron deserved everything for what they did but hey at least we got something out of it

Oh how i miss the days of actual reporters asking real questions and doing actual investigating and being honest in their reporting.

“Enron – The biggest fraud in history” South Sea Company looks around nervously

What was the rationale for the SEC approving their accounting practices? Sounds extremely dubious.

I wasn’t surprised. I was casually dating a guy at the time when i lived in Houston for a couple years, and the stories he would tell how they just made numbers up. He dumped me the night I asked a simple question and “so you’re ok with that”? No loss on my part. And i claim no moral high ground, but the culture and those that bought into it were just very unattractive.

12:26 Bush: Intervention in California will not solve anything. Also Bush: Intervening in Iraq will solve everything (that we made up).

Amazing video! one correction, Lou Pai didnt run with all he got into sunset, he had some charges too and paid $30mil in restitution

Enron ironically sold off some great innovative companies in the early times. The reason for selling them was they couldn’t make cash quickly enough for enron

Excellent explanation! Thank you for this.

I love these stories but its important to remember the devastation these unscrupulous directors cause on the average working man and woman and the average investor.good old greed.

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?

To those of you who haven’t seen it yet, check out “Enron, the smartest guys in the room” As a documentary lover it’s one of the best ever made.

Linking up with blockbusters for a streaming service in year 2000 was way ahead of its time. Somebody could predict the future!!

after all this years i still dont know what enron was supossed to do besides fraud

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.”

Thanks for this mini doc. I knew very little about Enron other than it involved energy, corruption, and bankruptcy before watching. However, now I am an angry boy.

That was was a very interesting and informative episode! We would love to get a ColdFusion video on the Lehman Brothers that lead to 2008-2009 global economic crisis. Thank you and team for the quality content that you are imparting. 😀

Interested in this because my uncle worked for Enron and was let go a few months before they went under and sold his stock to make ends meet till he found a new job when I was a kid

Personally I am more angry at the independent auditors. The level of incompetence was so breathtaking that it can either be categorised as negligent or complicity.

I remember hearing about this growing up. I just remember the governator doing a good job

These videos are brilliant and so informative. Well done Cold Fusion

My dad almost worked for Anderson before all this went down. He was so glad he went for a smaller firm.

I just think it’s funny that the SEC wants to regulate day traders out of work because of COVID and their influence on the stock market, but not Skilling’s “private” endeavors

I get the feeling we call every scam “The Biggest Scam in the world”!😂😎

I think every business student has watched Enron: The smartest guys in the room.

Wow, hold on there. How did you involve Richard Dawkins into this? He explicitly stated that we are the first “product” of the selfish gene that have capacity to fight against this natural embedded selfishness, and that we should do it. Richard Dawkins was not speaking for this “gene”, but using our knowledge and science to fight it.

We have to admit: Skilling is genius!

One thing these frauds say in common: “We’re changing the world”

The smartest guys in the room documentary blew my mind. I was hella young and my perspective on our country changed forever.

One of the saddest parts of this story is that Ken Lay died of a heart attack before his sentencing. Would have been better if he had gotten the full 45-sentence year and then lived to 105.

I can’t imagine being so empty that money is the only thing that motivates you.

This is how I imagine the daily life of an Enron employee would be. Employee1: spends $1M to buy all the lottery tickets but only wins $10K in one of the tickets. Enron: “Let’s see, 10K revenue generated per day over next 20 years… Let’s give a 5M bonus to EVERY top executive.”

Is this channel run by Pons and Fleischmann? I was impressed by your experiments! Thank you for the high quality contents.

loved this video. very informative and well done. thank you. I have subscribed to your channel

This is a good short form retelling of an exceptional documentary named “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”. It’s on Netflix. It might be one of the best documentaries ever

I worked at a box company, where I was a Credit Analyst. Enron came to my desk. I ran the credit report, which looked to me. I remember my Economic class. I was taught a new company loses money the first nine years. So, I knew there was Something with Enron. I took my credit report to the General Manager told him I want to give Eron a firm $40,000 credit line. The General Manager said no,make it $60,000 credit line. I told the manager, Enron will collapse before the end of the year. Taking our Box Company will follow Enron. I was let go a month later. But, I was right about about everything thing.

“One reporter would soon start asking questions…”  It only takes one person to make a huge difference, to stop a huge machine, to end a huge wrong.

A great documentary…enjoyed it immensely!!!

Elizabeth Holmes’ father was a VP for Enron. Lol.

I wish when I worked at Humana that I got to work with Joanna longer. Shes actually great and she was tough and a great boss. So deserved her promotion but biasely one of the best bosses I gotta work with. I got along with her well!! No complaints from me which is rare.

it appears ive already commented on this video. oh well, i ended up back here after watching the video about barings bank… and similar to how i felt about the aftermath of that incident, i feel basically the same in the case on enron. you dont have to be a CPA to realize how ridiculous “mark to market” accounting sounds…. it goes completely against rules in place in the FASB codification regarding revenue recognition.

George W. Bush: “Holding people accountable won’t solve anything.”

Loving this channel. Thank you.

Those frauds make me angry .. they need good punishment ! We need stronger laws

“but the executives didn’t know india didn’t buy electricity” that just shows how detached high executives are from the rest of the world.

You can say that Jeff’S killing it again…..I’ll see myself out.

When u think you’re the smartest guy in the room . There will always be someone smarter

This video is very similar to, and in some cases word-for-word from a movie ‘Enron, The Smartest Guys in the Room’, from Magnolia Pictures in 2005.

Thank you for that little 💎 of information at the end. What a coincidence 🤔 I like the way it was explained. A decent summary.

6:53–7:02 “That’s our vision, that we’re trying to change the world.” Yeah, they did change the world, in the worst way.

12:25 “George W Bush refused to step in, saying that his administration believed that intervention would not solve anything” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Companies like these just keep popping up every few years, it shouldn’t be just because of our memory problem…

So Enron did the equivalent of pretending you win even after you lose millions in gambling.

When it’s about fraud, deception, manipulation and corporate greed, there is always that one political party that has close ties to the people involved…

What Im more surprised of is how Skilling hanst “headbutted” a bullet yet. You woulve think dangerous players lost money because of him.

Whoever got involved with Enron must face the death penalty.

“Trading the weather” sounds more ridiculous in this video than it is in reality. Weather derivatives are a commonly used financial instrument in energy markets these days.

Very informative ! Thank you for a great video

“Skilling’s reputation was smeared…” I would say destroyed! Through his own actions and those of the officers he employed!

You are doing some pretty good job over here Mr. ! (along with your team I guess) .

Lol Elizabeth Holmes and her dad both thought they were smarter than everyone and ended up falling on their faces. After how many they hurt that is just hilarious.

as someone from puerto rico who lived there during hurricane maria and experienced many blackouts before and after the disaster due to the corrupt power grid system, I really wish these guys the fieriest place in hell

This was amazing! Both investors and brokerage houses would visit the “boiler room” on the 14th floor, it was completely fake. :0018.

I still don’t understand how any of these crooks were able to keep any of the money they stole ? Seriously it’s so wrong , think of all the little people who lost everything..

Hi I am from India and I read your book NEW THINKING at a library . Despite the fact that I was having high expectations your book surpassed my expectations .I would recommend people to put this book in their must read list .

“Money is the only thing that motivates people” no, fear of getting fired because they didn’t make you enough money was what motivated them.

Multiple tobacco executives asserting before a Congressional committee, “Smoking does not cause cancer” has to be in the argument. So does the Madoff Ponzi scheme. But what Enron did with the complicity of Arthur Anderson (booking revenue as earnings) is the same thing as what the Trump Organization has always done. That’s why TTO never went public. 2-sided accounting is hard. Yes, I realize this is recency/local bias. I’m sure this happens globally.

Skilling returned to work in the energy sector in 2019, only to see it get destroyed in 2020. Serves him right lol

Considering that Enron was trying to trade with Blockbuster for Streaming Service bandwidth and the deal fell through, and given one of the issues with Blockbuster was that they were way slow on the streaming service bandwagon, Enron may have been indirectly part of the reason Blockbuster fell.

Fun fact: Skilling is actually an old Scandinavian coin and also used as a slang in more modern times for money. Fitting..

I think Andy Fastow said, “I don’t care what you say about the company just don’t make ME look bad.” That’s how it appears on “Conspiracy of Fools” I’m almost certain. Good video!

I’ve seen this video, it’s great, like all the others!! I did stumble upon just now and I believe the title is outdated because the injection scam has replaced it… that will be a great eye opener in the near future!

It’s funny how you can be chilled for years and years for a robbery or other offences but these bankers get a fraction of what they should be sentenced to. I mean has anyone thought to consider the amount of lies and jobs lost and damage these people have done?

When he called Arnold “The Terminator” I lost it lmao

“Biggest fraud in history” Bernie Madoff who is currently serving a 150 year sentence: Am I a joke to you?

Beautifully done documentary. Right on point and not long.

“The Selfish Gene describes how greed motivates human nature.” That’s not what The Selfish Gene is about AT ALL!

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

I’ve just come back to this story again as it’s my favourite Coldfusion video.

“Skilling is out and starting another company” SoftBank: Take my billions

So they really were imagining being that rich and became rich but thought their ways were legal at the expense of people losing their homes due to such high utility bills.

Enron, the biggest fraud in history. The bank bailouts: Hold my beer

Good video. One of our traders wanted to sell Enron a crude oil cargo of 1 million barrels and asked me about giving them credit. I said that they needed to provide a letter of credit. He said “But they’re huge!”. “They were nothing a couple of years back and they could be nothing tomorrow. If they are making huge sums of money trading, then someone is losing it and I don’t see that.” Glencore, Vitol, Koch all got open credit because it was obvious where they were making their money.

If only these talents were less directed to greed they could make great companies serving the people AND have good salaries instead of obscene ones.

This video made me want to become an auditor, I’m one test away from being a cpa now

Enron only changed their name after the bankruptcy. They still operate today and many of their executives are in politics.

It’s all fun and games until you start to take notice of what group of people seems to always be responsible for these massive scams

Actually something I didn’t expect was the length of the executives’ senteces, man 24 years (with actually only 12 years served) is quite a lot for financial crimes, even though he probably deserved a lot more.

Imagine if they had thought to name it “Enronline.” They’d still be in business today.

You didn’t talk about that brave woman who took a pretty hard back lashing for bringing up the corruption. I remember it was her story that hit me the hardest because of what she went through to get the truth out despite her bosses threatening her.

effectively this meant that the company was worth more then it had earned. I like how this was something special back then. Today this is standard procedure for cool and hip companies with energetic top level management and fancy product presentations….

whenever executives or especially the CEOs of companies like this which are found guilty of major scams and as a result leads to the bankruptcy and destruction of employee lives.. I believe that these executives should be held liable criminally under charges such as Involuntary Manslaughter or similar for any suicide of ex-employees whose suicide was a direct result of the scam/bankruptcy and the ex-employee’s ruined livelihood. I hate that scammers like these only are charged with “white collar” charges, so this means they are tossed in a white collar criminal prison, which are essentially like hotel rooms/resorts where they are able to plan their next scheme or business venture with like-minded individuals. Instead these types of major white collar fraudsters should be thrown in prison with violent offenders in the general federal prison system so they can rot in prison along side murderers, rapists, and scum of the earth.

Ah, I remember being offered a job with enron, in June 2000. Luckily I had the presence of mind to turn it down.

Please do a video on the *”Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World”*!! One of the largest financial heists in history!

Errrr…… “Survival Of The Fittest” is sooo often misunderstood. What it really means is “Those Or That Which Best Fits Their/Its Environment”. Which, I suppose, describes Skilling perfectly….

We need more documentaries like this

Anytime any company says “we’re trying to change the world,” start asking questions.

My mother was absolutely livid and devastated when this happened. She lost a ton of retirement money. She also was and still is adamantly against regulations and a straight ticket republican. Try as I might, I can’t understand that. Her political beliefs seem demonstrably and directly harmful to her. And yet. 🤷

“Not so typical ending.” The rich (mostly) got away with it, and tons of poorer people suffered horribly. Not sure what’s atypical about that.

Read The Smartest Guy’s in the Room. It’s one of my favorite books and explains everything in detail. One correction: W Bush gave Lay a nickname but personally they weren’t terribly close. Lay actually bet against Bush in the governorship in Texas by donating to his rival creating an arms length relationship. Lay was closer to H.W. and Martha.

It wasn’t until I watched this that I know why they used the E symbol for MrRobot. I absolutely love that series 😊 I’ve never heard of Enron before, but that’s only because I’m a millennial n don’t live in the US.

Jeffrey Skilling and Andy Fastow, even with cooperating with federal authorities, should have both served at least 20 years in prison.

This is like a summary video of the documentary about Enron

It’s interesting that Enron went down but hardly any other companies doing similar things why’s that?

Wish you made more content like this again..

Put on a suit, a flash smile, some fancy wording and slap on an approval from an auditing company and you’re all set!

plot twist: the 29,000 ppl who lost their jobs poisoned him out of revenge, making it look like a heart attack a month before the sentence.

I still call Minute Maid Park, Enron Field😂 I remember this, and it was a weird time for Houston. They were still recovering from tropical storm Allison. That crazy bitch Andrea Yates’ case was all over the news. Compaq Computer got bought out by HP, and thousands of people got laid off. Then Enron.

You know there was that one person early on who knew something was up but everyone thought they were crazy

There was not too much emphasis made in this video about the auditor who should have caught this evil scheme in the first place. This is the reason Andersen no longer exists because of their role in this scandal.

I always enjoyed this story of Enron. Their commercials back in the day were everywhere. Bernie Madoff (he Made -OFF) is seconded to this.

Once they bring in the bobcat to help with shredding papers, you know it’s time to look for a new job.

The most distressing part of this story is just how intertwined with politics it is.

The Selfish Gene does not describe how greed and competition motivate human nature! This is such a common misconception that Dawkins himself addresses it in the preface of the book. The main message if any of The Selfish Gene, is that the selfishness of genes gives rise to altruism in animals like humans. So it’s basically the opposite takeaway!

if Pai were a white dude, he’d have had a movie a long time ago with the classic villain who got away plotline

sounds like the SEC itself needs to be reorganized

60bn in value 😂 That’s what Apple spends on stationery

The Federal Reserve scam makes Enron look like a back alley dice game with weighted die

I adore when things go horribly wrong for these types of people

You got the wrong PGE. Portland General Electric was the company Enron bought to jumpstart its electricity trading operation in 1997. Pacific Gas and Electric was a company that declared bankruptcy in 2001 as a result of the California energy crisis. This actually did incredible damage to Enron as Enron Energy Services was owed a lot of money from Pacific G&E that they could no longer collect. The revealing thing about this was that the wholesale traders in Enron North America celebrated when EES failed, when they had essentially traded another business unit in the same company straight out of business. To me, that speaks volumes about the Enron corporate culture.

How can so many factual errors and gaffs be included in such a comprehensive video like this?

One mistake in the video, Enron merged with Portland General Electric (PGE) NOT Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). PGE, despite being an Oregon utility, still had connections to the western grid and thus the ability to influence CA electricity prices.

Good stuff. Still subprime mortgages remains the biggest fraud.

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 !!

Mark to market always gets a bad rap in Enron videos. There was actually some justification for it when Enron moved from pipelines to trading. Mark to market is common in securities trading. My opinion is that the key difference is that in securities trading there is usually historical data to use when making predictions. With energy trading there wasn’t. What this means is that Enron would have needed to have very tight internal controls, robust internal audit and careful analysis, in addition to an impartial external audit. None of these things happened

Easily one of the best most high quality, most informative content I’ve ever seen!

need to watch this regularly. remind myself to cash out before things go boom.

I can’t believe this was a real company

Who would ever do business with any of these people ever after they get out of jail?

“Behind every great fortune, there is a crime.” – Mario Puzo.

The takeaway from this is money and political connections go hand-in-hand. Enron could not have done this without a wink and nod from the U.S. Gov’t.

That genius asian man cashed out just at the right time

I’ve always wondered how anyone with a brain could allow Mark to Market accounting to even exist. Talk about subjective. Enron used this to make their profits seem like whatever they wanted them to be.

The financial fraud videos are my favorite, insta thumbs up

“The govenor they want, the Terminator.” Hilarious😁

No matter your ideology, we can agree that Enron was an evil company, and are glad this company is gone.

I was pretty young one of the youngest people ever to get offered a job with CityGroup most the time you had to have at least 5 years in management before they would even look at you but they offered me a job a 20. I didnt go for it due to the fact they were one of the groups that gave them bail outs.

The Selfish Gene is such an over rated book. It hugely oversimplifies the relationship between individual genes and overall phenotype.

Enron’s story is literally Corporate America in a nutshell. Bush and the Government not stepping in during the rolling blackout shenanigans, but is conveniently best buddies with them thanks to that good ole fashion lobbying.

How can someone be so lucky to be so rich, corrupt, and old, and die before sentencing?

The two smartest men in the room. The fall of enron. Nice documentary too.

When your accounting company brings in a backhoe to destroy the documents.

Enron: We’re the biggest fraud in history. Theranos: Hold our beer. COVID 19: Glad to see you’ve got a free hand, Theranos. Hold this…

When you invest you’re buying a day you don’t have to work

“and they got away with it” The end.

Its good that Enron went down. Its good it was investigated. Its always better to make money legitimately, no cooking of the books is necessary.

You should’ve included this factoid: Jeff Skilling’s brother Tom is a beloved, very nice weatherman here in Chicago. It’s almost like complete opposites.

Love watching intelligent people scam the average

Idk, halfway through I thought “man, how can these people think that this is going to end well?” But then I though, there are people who think they can do whatever they want and get away with it. They aren’t normal people. They are the most entitled and greedy of society. So it kind of makes sense why normal people wouldn’t do the dumb things they did.

“Investors became nervous”. Yep. that nails just about all of human misbehaviour.

I never knew they were trading weather. It’s even more interesting if you know Tom Skilling, a TV meteorologist for WGN news is Jeffrey Skillings brother.

I wonder if the abuses of Texas Enron underlie the current shortages in the Southwest. Or it is just a poorly selected design basis rare event.

Life without parole for ALL of these thieves.

I guess you could say Skilling tried making a killing for Enron

Gets sentenced to 24 years, serves half, and gets to start all over again where he’ll probably try to pull the same move again. Isn’t America amazing

Some day soon we will be watching: “Cold Fusion-Biggest Scam in History.”😭

Years gone by and it seems that we don’t have a single reporter asking right questions how is it possible for a stock market go up during a global depression.

The Theranos fraud really is the child of the Enron fraud… the similarities are unbelievable

My economics teacher in highschool made us watch the documentary about this. Needless to say it was the only thing I can remember learning about from that class.

Still wondering what would have happened if they had sealed the partnership with Blockbuster

I remembered hearing about this on ABC at 8 or 9 years old

Mr ColdFusion… you are a hero.. a talent the world needs so much right now. PS I would love to meet you one day… I am also from Africa and also in Australia now

You must read “License to Lie” by Sidney Powell. It will open your eyes on the USDOJ railroading of the Merrill Lynch bankers over the Barge deals. Otherwise this piece you produced is one sided. Also, Arthur Anderson was railroaded by violating a law that didn’t exist. After the debacle a law was passed which requires corporations to maintain all documents it produces.

my jaw dropped at them manipulating the power causing blackouts, the gov was compliant

No autopsy and the coroner’s report was private. He’s alive living abroad.

Surely there are better examples of Skilling’s recklessness than “a few stiches.”

All the CEOs of each and every big company know its own company inside and outside inch by inch and for these clowns of Enron to say that they don’t know anything until they have to speak in front of Congress is total BS.

Anytime someone says their goal is to change the world you know it’s a scam

This is one of the very few things I admire about Americans, people sometimes ask questions and shit like this gets to be known by the whole world, if this happened in my country, nothing would be done about it.

The daughter of the vice president of this company ( mr holmes) had a daughter who went on to make another company people remember as theranos which was also a scam and she got convicted

And I thought Theranos was the biggest scam. I love those videos! Keep it up

If I was Skilling , I’d always be looking over my shoulder , many many people haven’t forgotten the misery he’s caused them .

They did eventually succeed in getting people to ask why

Great vid man liked how you wrapped it up

“Cheers guys, have a good one.” What an Aussie.

Imagine trying to make a energy company after your last one cause tens of thousands to lose their jobs and put most of your associates in jail and made one of partners commit suicide

Good thing Enron 2 succeeded thanks to the incredible atrioc gambit.

Both Elizabeth Holmes and Jeff Skilling uttered the same statement: ” we will change the world”…indeed they did.

The Terminator: gets elected Skilling: “why do I hear boss music?”

While it’s impossible to over-expose this scandal …. it does appear the makers of this video shamelessly use “The Smartest Guy In The Room” as a blue print for this more abbreviated version.

These are smart people. I want to learn from them.

A shocking and gripping story.

And then you see Wirecard and start wonderin ‘WTF, does Skilling have an estranged, genious son, who did it all over again?!’

Biggest? Worldcomm? Waste Management? I studied this in college and the more I found out the less I wanted to go into the business field.

The most upsetting thing is that I’ll never be smart enough to do something like this 😢

You’ve got to give it to them. That comercial from the 00’s was pretty damn good.

I wonder now if Skilling had to do with anything with the astronomical prices of Energy during the last year’s Texas snowstorm

I lived through those rolling blackouts in california. These traders needed to be dropped into a pit with no way out.

ColdFusion: Elizabeth Holmes’ dad was an executive at Enron. My head: Explodes

At least that $180m was evenly split among the employees who lost their jobs. Oh wait…

I remember ENRON collapsed when I was in high school. This is where Corporate America got its poor reputation and greedy corporatists (not capitalists) abused the free market at the expense of people’s livelihood.

Amazing how nothing has changed.

I referred to Enron in so many of my intros in my accounting papers… damn this company was stone cold…

One my dad’s best friends was really high up at Enron. Like super high up. Not executive high though. He didn’t know about the fraud and co operated so he wasn’t charged or anything.

This is why I’m always scared about Amazon. He does have many enterprises but the way Jeff Bezos plays around with stocks with his employees and then dips worries the shit out of me. It’s all feeling very hush hush too. Elon Musk reminds me of Theranos. Ideas that seem like they aren’t 100% yet but let’s try it and start to patent stuff anyway. Maybe I’m paranoid… but you have to agree most billionaires are sketchy for a reason.

It’s hilarious to see all those saps in those audiences who thought they were so smart and soon they lost everything they had.

“If I could go back and do things different, I would not” 😂😂😂

Apparently, justice is weak in front of the rich and powerful.

That ending, it’s like post credit scene showing an alien egg hatching at the end of a gruesome alien invasion movie that drove earth into an apocalypse…the difference is the ending is Real!

Situations like this is why public impalement should be made a thing again!

this is the story of Wiesman and how he made up a law and prosecuted a man into jail with it and destroyed 10,000 jobs. The man was exonerated a year later.

4:45 The Selfish Gene is not about how greed and competition motivate human nature. The “selfish” is describing the gene not the characteristic of the human. It refers to fact that humans are disposable machines that ‘selfish’ immortal genes use to propagate themselves. It may be that collaboration, kindness, and altruism are equally important motivating traits that mean humans and therefore the self-interested gene have survived. This maybe Skilling’s stupid misinterpretation not yours, but maybe you should make clear it was his mischaracterisation. Dawkins clarifies this here: https://youtu.be/j9p2F2oa0_k

Living in the Southern part of these United States I can’t remember anyone, ever calling a Baptist Preacher a Priest. “You ain’t from around here r ya?” lol

People (american especially) never learn from corporate america. So history is bound to repeat itself.

And to think there’s many people like these guys running big enterprises that control the lives of everyday people.

ANOTHER “so” called LEADER AT THE TOP story!!!!! LETS GO BRANDON!!!!!!!!

Getting away with cash and out of jail in a disgusting amount of time for their crime. So much for The US’ “justice for all.”

Crazy how even after all this Skilling’s net worth is still $600k. I know that isn’t much compared to others but its still FAR abouv most peoples. It’s almost as if once you learn how the system works, you’ll never again be in the average person’s income strata.

Unbelievable how white collar crooks, gets away with simple prison terms. While petty theft crimes get life imprisonment!! How unjust is that???

Enron was ahead of its time in introducing a Netflix like streaming service with Blockbuster back then

the greatest skill in politics or business is the ability to create and withdraw entities.

‘took 10 years to grow to $60 billion in value’ 🤣 Companies with 0 net revenues do that within days of their SPAC/IPOs now

Interestingly enough, if someone says they like the book ‘the selfish gene’, or that it argues for genetic-level selfishness, you can almost guarantee they haven’t read it. It isn’t that our genes make us selfish, in fact it proves the opposite point – it makes us altruistic towards our fellow species. The metaphor is that the gene itself is selfish. It doesn’t care what happens to us as long as we, or something like us, procreates, to keep the gene going.

People have totally misunderstood what Dawkins’s book “The Selfish Gene” is about. It seems no one has read past the title. It is not saying that humans have a gene that makes us selfish. It is saying that the genes themselves are the selfish ones, in that their whole function is to replicate themselves from generation to generation. It is to say that our genes aren’t interested in our survival but their own. It could be a gene that promotes laziness or charity but that gene’s whole purpose is to ensure that the body it inhabits procreates so that the gene and therefore its associated traits continues into future generations. So the title of the book has misled the casual observer to think we have genes that makes us selfish and this is somehow evolutionarily beneficial.

Also known as a ‘pyramid scheme’ which is prominently displayed on the back of our currency

The employees 401k Plan Provider and the got royally screwed by the rules in place at the time…. With 30 days of Enron’s stock going in the dumpster, Enron had decided to change who manged the company’s 401K plan. When this transition from one provider to another happens, employees were told that they would not be able to change their company stock amounts for 30 days. But employees were fine with leaving their stock in Enron at the time, because of all the lies the company leaders were telling about the soundness of the company. So with in that 30 day transition period, all Enron employees could, was watch the value of their Enron 401K stock dwindle down, day after day….to nothing… I believe after the Enron debacle, that the Govt. changed the rules of what happens when a company changes their 401K provider…

is the Enron “E” logo behind the logo of the Evil Corp from the Mr Robot series by any chance? looks damn similar!

The shilling 1-5 rating was nothing more than the old Chrysler philosophy. Classic MBA school trope every manager believes in without thinking long term.

Does ColdFusion imply that once a mail comes out of jail, he should not be entitled to earn a living?

The amount of corruption in this country baffles me. There seems to be no end to mass corruption in big corporations and government. These corrupt billionaires get away with anything, mostly because of all the deregulation. And here we talk about “justice.”

I like the way they dealt with people like these in the old days. A blindfold, a cigarette, and a wall. Kaboom!

I looked into the new business that Skilling is proposing. It’s actually a pretty interesting concept. The impression I got from a couple of the articles is that he wants to create a “stock market” for oil and gas wells where people will be able to buy an interest in a set of producing wells. His company will provide the market place and due diligence reports on the wells and take a transaction fee. Not saying I would want to be an investor or even an early user, but it is something I’ll keep my eye on.

Some people I’ve tallked to believe KL was also a suicid, and not just Baxter. I think his death vacated his conviction.

I just realized that Enrons logo looks like the Evil corp logo from Mr Robot. Lol!

Ask why? Sounds like a good question to ask Citadel these days.

Very good. Well done!

wow, legit surprised that computer back in those days could support 6 monitors

I worked at the home office in Houston , as document control specialist during the last 5 years. There weren’t any traders working 18 hour days. Guys like me were taking on heavy work loads typing up budget proposals for executives. They weren’t exactly trading weather what they were doing was offering subsidized payments on farm equipment basically like in insurance if you bought one of our sponsored pieces of equipment and your crops failed you would get x amount of dollars back. The way our intranet was set up we could trade at any time of the day for free whether to be mutual funds or just to buy Company stock yeah we were making money. Can lay left the company to become George W’s stock advisor then the company transferred over to Cisco Systems and when that happened in 2001 around September 1st or 2nd suddenly there was a virus that locked us all out and the stock started nose-diving and Traders were leaving the buildings smiling and laughing with their boxes of possessions retiring at 27 28 years old then suddenly can lady appeared at an all company meeting at the Hyatt Regency downtown Houston saying that everything was going to be fixed and we were getting an additional 10% of stock options making it 35% of our annual salary and stock options and everyone said you must be on crack he said no but right about now I wish I had some then him and the rest of the execs started draining the company through stock options I was watching the SEC because anybody director and above has to show their financial records to the public these guys were taking out 30 million dollars one day 15 the next the most I ever saw out taking out one day was by that Asian guy took out three hundred million dollars then they blew up some buildings in New York to cover it all up Then they blew up some buildings in New York to cover it all up and make even more money I tell you what those guys were some sorry son of a bitches can lay had a personal valet this black guy that always were a beret he had a fleet a black Vehicles Lincolns and Cadillacs and Mercedes the new building that they built in 2000 to 2002 was to bring up investor confidence to get people to invest more money or they were draining the company. There were extravagant parties extravagant bonuses we had technology that you would only see in movies such as touch touch-screen desk holographic cartography stations there was even a life-size Darth Vader and a stormtrooper on the 7th floor new hires attended orientation what was set up like a talk show like Oprah or Ellen we had fashion shows for the Houston Astros right there in Antioch Park they close down AstroWorld for us for only the employees and their families and friends on certain days it was great if you had a a blue badge in those days people knew who you were and I carried mine with pride it’s funny because now this scam that is going on with this pandemic happened exactly like the Enron collapse started with a virus then a lockout then the stimulus program then all the top guys told what they could I stole an Imran sign off of the wall in the elevator Lobby on the 35th floor I’m leaving out a lot but there was a lot of shit going on they use black water to clear out indigenous people in Diboll India took on subsidiaries that were trash like Midwestern gas who who’s little mom-and-pop oil company was a disaster due to floods and wrecked tanker trucks because they didn’t know how to load them field notes and drawings that were on cocktail napkins it was crazy at the end

Absolute power makes absolutely evil.

Thanks for this doc. Good to look back. Bank robber is probably a more noble profession, but I doubt you’ll be out in 12 years.

It’s nice to see where Elizabeth Holmes got her business ethics from.

We need the story of Michael Milken (junk bond king) and how his people went on to run AIG.

Hmmmm, this sounds real familiar with what’s currently going on here in Texas with Ercot

Imagine if this guy became a politician instead my God the world would be on fire right now

It’s astounding how many things you got wrong in such a short video

You watch this to the end and there’s Skilling, fresh out of jail, yet quickly making connections to game the system and take more billions from the unlimited supply of suckers. All such crooks need is a republican in the White House and AG’s office, and a phone.

The best document channel on YouTube

Enron: The Biggest Fraud in History Elizabeth Holmes: Hold my Nanotainer

You should do a video on the new Enron.

12:28 “Intervention would not solve anything.” – George Bush

Let’s hope there’s a similar video out soon about the executives of the Texas power grid, ERCOT.

This is sadly business as usual on Wall Street. Enron was certainly not the exception. There will be more coming to light at the peoples’ expense.

“they were working on a streaming service with blockbuster” wait, what?

People saw the fall of Enron and how greed and shady business practices led to a total collapse. They ignored they warning signs and enjoyed the dollars signs that flowed and Lo and behold the housing market was a ticking time bomb. Not quite the same of course, but when something like this is chalked up to a few people’s failings and not a problem with the stock market regulations in the first place, you’re asking for trouble.

PG and E was compromised from the start. Should have seen it coming. 2008 players were shielded from real indictments

One of the Best Channels on The Internet ! Fact

great summary, super video, thanks

Enron ask why “And this, would later lead to the company’s demise.”

This is just a summary of the documentary ‘ Enron: the smartest guy in the room’, would definetely recommend that documentary!

Government fines these executives hundreds of millions but lets the workers that were innocent take a severance pay of $4k…. seems like Enron isn’t the only dodgy ones in all this…

When you’re a financial executive dirt biking is pretty edgy 🤣🤣

Word of caution. “Writing-down” in finance and accounting means removing or devaluing an asset.

Enron did NOT merge with California’s PG&E! It purchased Portland General Electric, or PGE. Wow, pretty major oversight here.

“…shifting money to fake accounts such as Mr. M. Yass or ‘my ass’ ” 😂😂😂 ballsy bankers

The description of The Selfish Gene at 4:49 is a widespread misconception. It’s not remotely what the book is about. It may or may not have been Skilling’s conception of human nature — I don’t know — but it is not what’s written in The Selfish Gene.

Private companies have way too much power.

So that’s where the EvilCorp logo came from…

Gambling,risk taking, delivering utility, accountability and weights are different things..interesting story, lessons, weird reality and realizations

Nice use “Love on a Real Train” by Tangerine Dream there, guys. I’m proud of you!

“A little bit of edge,” in corporate world is equal to crazy i guess.

The scandal that also brought down the accountancy firm with the 30k head count Arthur Andersen. Or almost, and WorldCom nailed it.

My Aunt work for enron without warning she lost her retirement everything she worked for and to this day those bloodsuckers are rich go figure they might have gotten jailed but that still doesnt help that people lost there jobs

You should cover the Markopolos report on General Electric. He claimed their accounting is more fraudulent than Enron. Only time will tell how true that claim is.

Not only was ENRON admired by some elected Federal Government officials; the company and its ruthless human resources system[s] was indeed the boyhood fantasy dream of many on Wall Street and the American corporate world — seeing these reckless behaviors as being the new possible norm for organizations. The established accounting firm of Arthur Anderson & Company lost its ticket to provide corporate services to clients and became non-existent as a result of blithely going along with what amounts to downright corporate idiocy and bad behaviors of the top echelon of ENRON leadership. By the turn of the Twenty-first Century; the organization was being held together by duct-tape but still remained being blessed by what were called the ENRON BULLS on Wall Street who were either paid or otherwise made to say things were just hunky-dory at the Texas giant now being brought into question. Practically all of the promoters of ENRON and their management have a warped idea of exactly what the of “corporation” is or indeed what an American corporation is supposed to be.

Enron were major contributors to both parties. Don’t skip over that over detail, it’s key.

Hold my beer, the Biden presidency made Enron look like a Tupperware party.

I was following the Enron story religiously at that time. Although I am a Republican, I never did (and I still don’t) like George W. Bush (W). I find “W” incompetent and has immoral motives. As my Father use to tell me, “Birds of a feather flock together”. With this being said, I always associated Ken Lay (Kenny Boy per “W”) being tied to the hip with “W”. I always found it interesting how Kenny boy died of a heart attack a month before his sentencing. I believe that the death of Kenny boy was a scam because this was the only way “W” could save Kenny boy. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kenny boy is living in the Caribbean enjoying his million of dollars that he obtained from hard working people.

Quite literally this guy watched “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” and made the doc 20 minutes. He uses the same framing, images, video, breaks in the story and even uses the same words as the documentary. This is plagiarism. And lazy plagiarism at that. Just watch the doc. It’s much better and you won’t get a knock off version.

The “ask why” statement at the end in the closing remarks was brilliant.

How did the Enron guys think they wouldn’t get nailed for all of this?

Your channel is one of if not the most interesting channels I’ve ever come across on YouTube.

The people of California just didn’t turn on Gray Davis. He played a big role in the energy crisis when he agreed to the scam and tried to cover up his role. That is why Gray Davis was recalled .

Reporter: So how DOES Enron make money? Skilling: (total silence)

Anytime you ask a CEO how his company makes money and they don’t have an answer. That might be a red flag.

You ever wonder if Enron was framed? An investment company that learned how Vanguard made it would be dangerous to the whales.

Look at the number of companies that are or were amongst the biggest that have become embroiled in scandals, committed fraud, mistreated their workers, and tell me how less government is good and we should just hand over all responsibility to corporations…

The statement at the end of the video, by former CFO, where he said other companies are doing what Enron did, at the time it was referred to one sided Journals, recently General Electric were accused of similar fraud. What has happened with that investigation.

Had you done a video , on the rigas family , and adelphia cable / communications yet?

It is always the same story, the controller which is paid by the controlled. Where were the Stock Exchange authorities who should have checked the reliability of the balance sheets? And rating agencies?

I bet in 5 years, there will be a similar report to CF’s Enron but on Crypto!

Much, much bigger than Theranos. For one thing, Theranos never went IPO.

“Intervention won’t solve anything” – George W Bush

“They mistook the leverage for genius.” — Steve Eisman On Wall Street Executives

I hate the part that they have to rated their staff to rank 5. This became a new pattern in big firm. The traditional treating staff as assets is no longer there. The big firms make all original permenant positions to contract amd then do this crazy ranking. People r forced to work hard with lower pay. The managers in the middle also have uneasy life. They had to rank their own team members to rank 5, or, they themselves would become the rank 5 staff. The stress go to all levels in the company amd people just want to cover their ass in all works… Not making right things right… I dont know who come out with this idea. This is actually killing a lot of original healthy corporates….

Perhaps Texas allowing bankrupted to keep there mansion excluded was a gift from when Dubya bush was state Governor? Anyone know?

It’s crazy how hypocritical this country is

Now I realize the Enron logo’s uncanny resemblance with ECorp’s logo in Mr. Robot TV series.

When fortune magazine published their fortune 500 issue they had Enron #7.

The title should be “The Most Evil Company” and that CEO was evil

One of my gym locks has a combination of 11-28-01,the date that Lay was arrested.I mark his name on the lock’s back to keep me from forgetting.

super great video info and analysis from the best channel on utube. you hit this one out of the park again. this is what the state of California is letting the power companies do with there ripple off multi tier scam power bills. people wake up this will be coming to you power bills soon . what it means is sky high bills. thank you and keep up the good work

I met a woman working with her husband at Enron and together they had invested around $3 M in the company and lost it all and this was in 2000! I remember the headline (I live im Tx) about the statement that showed the company didn’t have the value they claimed it had. Embarassing, they bet on rain coming or drought! What’s more embarassing is that Bush was president (did just what Herbert Hoover did before thebig crash). The problem with new ventures for Skilling is that people know what he did and would not invest anyhting with that crook! Hopefully people don’t think all Texan business are like those thieves! I live in Tx but not a real Texan…

when you try to speedrun a game, but know nothing else except for the glitches.

Wall Street 2020: “Hold my Fiberwire”

Enron did not merge with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG & E). They BOUGHT a company called Portland General Electric (PGE).

Boy….whenever I hear a version of “we are changing the world” I smell a grifter

Enron – The Biggest Fraud in History Theranos: “Hold my beer”

This documentary should be played in high school business classes

I just don’t understand how someone like that can ever walk free again… He is directly responsible for at least 50.000 people losing their jobs, plus multiple 100.000s, if not millions of ruined lives. Not to mention the corruption they had involved in the federal government. Everyone involved in something like this should be burned at the stake.

So THIS is where accountants hang out on YouTube. I knew as an auditor there was a place for me on the Internet. FraudTube

Lou Pai returns to the story a few decades after the dust settles? it’s barely been two. 🤔

“They moved electricity out of state to increase demand.” No, that would reduce supply, not increase demand. “They even .. closed power plants for a few hours to increase price because there was less demand.” No and No, that would reduce supply not demand. And reducing demand would decrease prices. How did these mistakes make it into the video? That’s terribly wrong on obvious, easy stuff. It’s gibberish. At 11 minutes in.

Whenever a company wants to “change the world”, they forget to mention a “*” after that means: for the worst

This is why any essential services, like electricity, should be heavily regulated. Everything done in the name of the consumer. No ceos

“Trading weather?” I am really surprised that people fell for that. Maybe they knew something I didn’t. However, I have the last laugh.

Learning about this in my accounting 1 class

It didn’t help that India owed billions to Enron over gas deals either. Enron wasn’t the only crook. Before you can say India cannot afford electricity, they are one of the few countries with a space program, nuclear weapons, and a massive technology hub. They bought seven billion in weapons that year. As I said, Enron isn’t the only crook in this mess.

I know one of these guys no cap he’s pretty cool tbh haven’t talked to him much

I think he missed the point of “the selfish gene”

I ask the same questions of a few of our current business giants, like Donald Trump, and his family.

Skilling should have been sentenced to life behind bars and permanently banned from the business world.

Over 20 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. I sound like my mother now. Shit Im getting old.

Since I was like 10 in the year 2000 I didn’t understand it but it was well known lexicon even then when something good just tanks to shit instantly it went ENRON

ENRON! Biggest scam ever…a company that you didn’t know what it did…Go Figure… Nothing!

yo i had to watch this vid as a part of my organisational behaviour class for un! so cool to watch it again

The reckless investors just look over the logs but failure to look over secret meeting and deals lie to investors to earn big

HA! Every time I have to shred old paperwork at work and anyone asks what I’m doing I always say “shredding Elron documents”

It’s still known if Enron’d deal with block buster had been successful then Netflix would have never come up

Good day to you, ColdFusion. In this video you’ve managed to plagiarise (sorry, I guess I mean to say paraphrase) successfully.

I snorted when he said ‘Baptist priest’😂 we just call em preachers lol idk why ‘priest’ got me. Guess bc there’s such a vast difference between a Baptist preacher like I’m familiar with and a catholic priest so I can’t imagine the words being interchangeable

Carillion in the UK tried their hardest to get near Enron!

I am at a disadvantageous position, none of you are moving, I have explained that kind of fraud in communicating already… don’t complain to me if this makes you look like a tyrant, therefore needing a bigger tyrant to enforce the weaker party’s will upon the disgusting party.. don’t fuck this up for yourselves! I am only for the people, the good

That isn’t what “The Selfish Gene” was about. Someone clearly hasn’t read it.

m2m accounting method is legit, but when you mark the assets to market at year-end, you can fudge the value and the accountants are none the wiser.

How do you translate a book on evolutionary biology into worker exploitation? Tell me you are functionally illiterate without telling me you’re functionally illiterate or The story on how educational system failed to teach a boy the basics of evolution and made him think that “the fittest” means something it doesn’t. Or The story on how you can interpret any text to mean anything you want by not even trying.

Where tf did 2k downvotes come from? That was a paid brigade for sure. This video is above the bar on info and integrity.

Nikola is a close second behind Enron. 😂

Every time 👆🏻👆🏻 it’s the moment and memories which we lived for,l just got my second 7.2btc from you, thank you giving such memories to cherish all the way from California 💯

Lmao, California brought in the Terminator to defeat Enron.

Up here in Canada where the sheep are routinely slaughtered by the wolves…..the government sold hundreds of miles of highway to a Spanish conglomerate who charge outrageous tolls to Torontonians trying to get to work.

With the loss of Enron, California has lost one of it’s greatest electric power scapegoats.

Lou Pai was the smartest of the bunch. While its terrible what Enron did, I cant help but envision myself trying to do what Lou Pai did…I guess I’m just tired of being strapped for cash all the time lol

Hey bud, proper nice series, but would love it if you’d dive a bit more into the dominos collapsing. A lot of these videos seem to end like ”And then everybody found out, bankruptcy shows over, bye”. Could do with some analysis of the crash

Every time 👆🏻👆🏻 it’s the moment and memories which we lived for,l just got my second 7.2btc from you, thank you giving such memories to cherish all the way from California 💯

I feel I have to point out that the book “the Selfish Gene” doesn’t actually claim that people are fundamentally selfish, nor that people should behave selfishly. When people see the title of the book, they focus on the word “selfish” when the book is really about the second word – “gene.” Genes are selfish in the sense that they want to replicate themselves. If a gene doesn’t get passed on, that’s the end. If a gene gets passed on sometimes, maybe it’ll make it, maybe not. If a gene can maximize its potential to be passed on, then it’ll still be around after generations and generations. Put it this way: You love your children. It’s not an act, it’s genuine, selfless love. But that love was programmed by genes that want to see themselves survive, because those genes likely exist in your child as well. So the genes are selfish, but you, the person, aren’t. I know that can be difficult to understand, and the book is more complicated than that, it’s just frustrating to see brilliant scientific ideas misunderstood or twisted to justify basic greed. Dawkins takes care to explain that his book is not a moral treatise, it’s a description of nature.

Isn’t it sad that when idiotic things like betting on the weather occur….. it’s just “one reporter” who starts asking questions 🤦‍♀️ Doesn’t it make you think about all the rubbish BLM, gender and climate things that have so much support at the moment

Enron stole all company’s money & fleet to Grace, I think, brought them back from Grace & faced Justices; I had the Enron files, we had to close it.

Those enron traders were heavily doped up!

Good Presentation!! 😎👍👍

A lesson for everyone and anyone Do some research when you invest but be 100% sure Too complex of a business structure? You don’t trust the owners with your money? DO NOT DO IT AND FIND A NEW STOCK There are plenty

why don’t we still have classy enemies like skillings. this would be a great op.

Enron: no one can fraud bigger than us Covid: hold my mask

“Shifted money to fake accounts like M.Yass” Haha sounds wallstreet enough! “Hey Jim, I’m gonna move a $100,000 in my ass today”

4.50 “…’The Selfish Gene’, describes how greed and competition motivates human nature.” This synopsis is wrong, the book describes how natural selection results in cooperation and altruism. It says that genes are ‘selfish’, but organisms (including humans) are not, because we share genes.

I’ve got a film about this on VHS called “The Crooked E” great film

I find it interesting that you did not cover the Wall Street traders who shorted the stock? You see there were many people who took the time to read and understand Enron. They proceeded to sell the stock at its peak and buy and replace when it collapsed. You present that everyone was sucked into this. Not true at all. People are just to lazy To read the information and ask questions about the business. The information that Enron was a house of cards was all there. When things are to good to be true they usually are!

1:22 Weather: Happens ⛅️ Enron: STONKS📈 You learn something new everyday 😂

she needs to realize that she is 24 years old, an adult, who is educated and this level of deviant behavior is unacceptable from someone with her qualities. that is what an abusive spouse does, throws things at you, disrespects you, makes your life miserable or tries to harm you… and then tell you that she did because she loves you so much….! unguided passions for the most parts are madness. go to anger management, learn to control your emotions, develop a sense of fairness and respect with honesty, which is missing and has been the cause of relationship failure.

Funny that the Astros’ stadium was called Enron Field at the time and we find out they were just as crooked as Enron 19 years later.

Have you ever heard of MMM, the financial pyramid?

Its called “smartest guys in the room” great doco

As with Inglorious Basterdz, Skilling should have had the Enron logo branded on his forehead.

The biggest twist is that Enron almost became Netflix 😮

Jeffrey Skilling completely misunderstood The Selfish Gene, if he read it at all. In the book, Dawkins argues that natural selection happens at the gene level, not the individual or group level, and therefore genes can be seen as “selfish” (if they had a personality – of course the whole thing is a metaphor). Dawkins explicitly argues that “selfish” genes, which only “care” about their own thriving in the gene pool, can absolutely lead to social, cooperative, even altruistic behavior. Obviously the human species is very successful, and it has a lot of genes for altruism and playing nicely with others. Of course, there are also stupid, sociopathic businessmen who totally misinterpret the writings of others to fit their own sociopathic agenda.

If i was the type of low life scum that makes money off other people misery, Skilling’s reputation hasn’t gone down. He just got caught, but his methods made billions. This time, just don’t get caught. but I’m not a low life scum, so i wouldn’t work for him.

I worked for them on Dabhol LNG Project in India then in the UK before it was finally wound up.

Companies too good to be true = investors’ worst nightmare.

Skilling resigned in August 2001, 1 month before 911 which Enron was deep in energy and weather technology with GWB. Coincidence?

This is now considered the second biggest fraud ever

I can’t wait to see how you deal with Nikola!

Remember, Arthur Andersen – Accenture was their ally in making of this mega disaster

Enron in a nutshell: I have 10,000 * move comma one place to the right and add an extra zero at the end * We now have 100,000 * ah to hell with it, add another comma after the final zero, proceed to add three more zeroes. We now have 100,000,000 This is essentially what Enron did, or were doing on a regular basis..

This Dude 👆👆got the👆👆 highest recommendation here, he’s doing great.

You gave an update on Skilling, however you failed to update the case against Arthur Andersen. The case against them was overturned by the Supreme Court by unanimous decision. The prosecution didn’t prove that the firm knew it had broken the law or that there had been a link to any official proceeding that prohibited the destruction of documents. If proper procedure is followed, all firms destroy the documents from an audit except for the final file documents that support the audit opinion. Arthur Andersen was doing the normal housecleaning which was done before any legal proceeding which would have required them to hold on to them. Peer reviews are done every year and before they happen personnel makes sure that there are no files or work papers existing that aren’t part of the file.

You’ll have to change the title once Trevor Milton is arrested, tried and convicted.

Wait wasn’t Theranos ceo ‘s father also part of enron?

It’s kind of funny that Enron Field was original name of the Houston Astros baseball stadium in downtown. 15 years later, the Astros were caught cheating in baseball.

Business shutdowns due to government intervention should have fees paid to employees and not the government.

Hey Cold Fusion, now do an expose’ of the biggest criminal group of them all, the BUSH criminal empire!

How convenient Ken Lay has a heart attach a month before going to prison. That SOB is alive and well!

1:51 Baptists don’t have priests. They have pastors. 17:14 “Smeared” (meaning damaged by false accusations or slander – he was convicted and sent to prison!) is NOT an accurate description. I would simply say “damaged” or “destroyed”.

The main argument against a totally free and unregulated market

Enron the biggest fraud? How about the Great Recession? A family with an income of 40K gets a 500K mortgage with a secondary high interest mortgage as the down payment. Who would loan the money? No problem. The mortgage is insured for the lender. If the buyer defaults the lenders loss is covered. Amazingly, defaults exceeded the insurers ability to cover the loss. Follow the Greed. Anyone remember Jim Cramer’s break down on CNBC?

I am glad I have never had the greed gene. I do make decent moolah but hv never felt the need for megamillions…let alone billions. The stress of that much money ain’t worth it

Here I was thinking about how disappointed Elizabeth Holmes parents would be. Boy was I way off. Im sure Elizabeth’s father was proud

2001: ENRON “BIGGEST FRAUD IN HISTORY 2021: NFT appears and is basically the same thing*

I NOW UNDERSTAND THE REFERENCE IN THE BEE MOVIE WHEN THEY SAID “HONRON”

It’s good to revisit this again.

My father worked in this case when he was in FBI I still have some

Can’t wait for the upcoming one about Citadel 👀

I was a former bank auditor. One thing I learned early in my career is that if someone in the bank is making the bank money, management didn’t want to hear about anything wrong.

Reporter: So, how does your company make money? CEO: LOL IDK.

every college campus you go to you will find that the entire male population is motivated by money and strippers. how is this unusual? i just love how these exposés like use things that are so common among the average male population to act like this is a feature of malice.

Funny how former Enron executive was the father of Elizabeth holmes 🙄

Also didn’t Arnold Schwarzenegger become governor because of Enron’s bullshit getting Gray Davis recalled!

It’s no mystery why Skilling started trading in the weather…he could just call up his twin Tom Skilling, head weatherman at WGN Channel 9 in Chicago.

Apparently fictional E-corp from Mr. Robot was inspired by this monstrosity.

thank you good sir for pointing it out, it really is getting out of hand

Jeez US companies love to cook the books from the videos I saw so far from this channel 😒🙄

Fun fact for baseball fans Minute Maid Park (where the Astros play) used to be called Enron Field but then yeah… Lol

Ethical audits and reviews are critical for corporate success and longevity. Social responsibility needs to be integrated into the company’s mission.

There’s something innately wrong with American capitalism. The love of money truly is the root of all evil.

This is almost word for word straight out of ‘The Smartest Guys in the Room’. Hardly any new content ColdFusion…..

Skilling is my idol. You can’t but respect his hustle.

While I find the subject fascinating, it felt like the narrative in the video was all over the place. Like it was haphazardly assembled from semi-related scraps of information.

I’d be flattered to be called someone’s ICBM.

Enron + Blockbuster is a winning combination if I’ve ever heard one

I worked for Enron but didn’t invest in the company.

The scary thing is, there are a bunch of Enrons still out there.

1. Great explainer! 2. No mention of #SarbanesOxley?

Damn, I wanna start my own Billion dollar scam. LOL Can I sell Clouds???

Trading the weather? Ethiopia: We’ll trade you 100 of our sun units for 50 of your rain units. Ireland: Deal.

ENRON did NOT buy PG&E. They bought Portland (Oregon) General Electric the utility in the Portland area.

I’d like to cover the employees side of story

G.E is next, they were recently in the news for getting caught cooking their accounting books.

I don’t think they own the number one spot anymore. Fierce competition over the last two years.