Enron

Cultural  

1. An American corporation based in Houston, Texas, that traded in energy and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2001. Enron's collapse stunned most investors and analysts because Enron, the seventh largest corporation in the United States, had long reported huge earnings. Subsequent investigations revealed that Enron had inflated its earnings by hiding its debt and losses in subsidiary partnerships. Although some of the company's top executives made huge profits as Enron fell apart, many of its employees saw their retirement savings in Enron's 401(k) plan wiped out by the collapse of Enron's share price.

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Enron's collapse raised many questions about the reliability of corporate financial statements and the potentially cozy relationships between accountants and the firms they audit.

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Enron

Gibney, best known for "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" and "Taxi to the Dark Side", has called his latest film an "unvarnished" look at the powerful and culturally influential entrepreneur.

From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026

“It’s fair to say that at some point — at some time — there will be a crisis,” said John Arnold, a billionaire former Enron energy trader and the founder of philanthropy Arnold Ventures.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 23, 2026

Founded in 1931 as a Jewish law firm outside the white-shoe elite, Weil built its reputation handling bankruptcies for Lehman Brothers, General Motors and Enron.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

Among the company’s biggest customers was Enron, the energy company that infamously filed for bankruptcy in 2001 after widespread internal fraud was uncovered.

From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2026

During a phone conversation on August 5, 2000, two traders chatted about how a wildfire in California would allow Enron to jack up its electricity prices.

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt