of the two main political parties, Labor and Conservatives. The Labor party was accused of taking Enron’s money in return for access to government ministers. The party had apparently changed its policy on gas-fired power stations after being lobbied by companies, including Enron. This was seen by some as possible evidence of Enron's influence on government policy. However, the UK Government insists its links with Enron have neither changed policy nor bought access to ministers. A second front of allegations emerged over Labor’s close ties with Andersen, Enron’s accountants, a company barred from government work for failing to prevent the DeLorean car company collapse. This ban was later lifted, which has caused the rise of awkward questions …show more content…
Lay took up the reins at Enron in 1986 after it was formed from the merger of two pipeline firms in Texas and Nebraska. Prior to Enron’s collapse, he was credited with building Enron's success. Lay resigned as CEO in December 2000, and was replaced by Jeffrey Skilling. In August 2001, he resumed leadership after Skilling resigned. Lay resigned again in January 2002 after becoming the focus of the anger of employees, stockholders and pension fund holders who lost billions of dollars in this disaster.
Jeffrey Skilling
Former Chief Executive, President and Chief Operating Officer. Skilling joined Enron in 1990 from the consultancy firm McKinsey, where he had developed financial instruments to trade gas contracts. Prior to becoming Chief Executive in February 2001, Skilling was President and Chief Operating Officer of the firm. Skilling was also seen as a key architect of the company’s gas-trading strategy. Skilling resigned his post as Enron’s chief executive in August 2001 without a pay-off.
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This means that Andersen’s job was to check that the company’s accounts were a fair reflection of what was really going on. As such, Andersen should have been the first line of defense in the case of any fraud or deception. Arguments about conflict of interest had been thrown at Andersen since they acted as both auditors and consultants to Enron. The company earned large fees from its audit work for Enron and from related work as consultants to the same company. When the scandal broke, the US government began to investigate the company’s affairs, Andersen’s Chief Auditor for Enron, David Duncan, ordered the shredding of thousands of documents that might prove