Enron was so good at selling itself that it led to unrealistic expectations about its growth and profitability. In trying to live up to these unrealistic expectations, Enron started to falsify financial reports. It inflated earnings by using outside partnerships to monetize assets (and counting the proceeds as earnings) and to move its debt off its balance sheet. But deceit required growing falsification until it all became unsustainable. Enron was then forced to restate its earnings sharply downward, and this caused its stock to collapse. By giving its auditor’s stamp of approval, and then quickly shredding the evidence once Enron’s troubles began, Andersen, the huge consulting firm with worldwide offices, also collapsed. Enron was Andersen’second-largest client with consulting and auditing fees in excess of $52 million in the year 2000. This proves how inconsistent it is for the same accounting firm to provide consulting services to companies whose book it also audits.