Enron's collapse followed public di

Enron's collapse followed public disclosure of significant debts that had been concealed by complicated and fraudulent accounting practices. Not only were Enron's top executives deeply involved in this scheme, they person¬ally received tens of millions of dollars from it. This massive ethical fraud was perpetrated with the support of Enron's accounting and auditing firm, Arthur Andersen, at the time one of the top five international accounting firms. Andersen played both ends of a conflict of interest by earning money both as Enron's auditor and as consultants in concealing these debts. To make matters worse while the stock price was collapsing, senior executives sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stock to unwary investors, making persona1 fortunes from the collapse. During this same period, employees were prevented from selling their own stock that was held in their 401 (k) retire¬ment plans. Arthur Andersen's accountants, meanwhile, were busily shred¬ding hundreds of documents that could have been used in criminal and civil legal cases. Enron's board of directors, and particularly their audit commit-tee, twice waived internal rules of ethical conduct that prohibited the conflict of interest practices that enabled Enron executives to profit at the expense of shareholders.