Enron transformed itself from a regional pipeline company into a Wall Street darling by trading energy contracts and, increasingly, by using complex off-the-books partnerships to hide massive debts and inflate profits on paper.
As scrutiny mounted through 2001, the house of cards fell fast — restated earnings erased years of reported profit, the stock cratered from a high near $90 to 61 cents within months, and the company filed for bankruptcy in December 2001 with $63 billion in assets, then the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Thousands of employees lost their jobs and much of their retirement savings, which had been heavily invested in now-worthless Enron stock. CEO Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced to over 14 years in prison, and the scandal ended Arthur Andersen, one of the world's five biggest accounting firms.
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