They weren't the ones who actually put together these fabrications though. They did sign off on some of them, but most were inacted by the CFO at the time. Think about the type of chaos you could cause if you wanted as the CFO of a very large company... For that matter, think about the type of chaos you could cause as an underling in a company where assets are hundreds of millions of dollars. There isn't a lot of diversification across bets at that point. In no way am I trying to defend these guys. They created a fundementally misleading image of their company. However, the SPE's that you are talking about were under the purview of Fastow. The book "The Smartest Guys in The Room" tends to portray Lay as a doddering fool and Skilling as disengaged from the business towards the end, but still duplicitous. I'm not exactly sure how accurate this image of these two company leaders is, but the people within the industry that I've talked to do not tend to this portrayal strikingly inaccurate.
smartest guys in the room is a great read if anyone is thinking about it. great book.... most amazing thing was just how mismanaged a company could be.... i have said it before in previous posts - but the parallels between the Enron story and the Bush administration are alarming....
To all of you that are showing the slightest bit of sympathy: Did your doctor forget to tell you that you are mildly retarded? Why do u think this is a welfare state and not pure capitalism? This type of theft & corruption is how revolutions get started. Do a look into the past and see what happens when the rich stepped over the line with such audacity. Do a look at early 1900s, did you even know that right before union and labor laws, the population was close to revolting. Yeah most exec management are a bunch of fat greedy insatiable pigs who bend the rules every which way to screw the common man. And most of the time it is done in a clever manner, where the common man does not realize it or really feel it. The game will always be played and it should be with wit and moderation. But there is a limit, and the Enron gang stepped about 2 miles over that line. Noone even mentioned the artificial California black outs created by Enron. Come on get real, these pigs and most like them do not do it for the money. It's a power & ego trip, these people show the worst of human nature. It's the same mentality that brutal dictators fall into. Egomaniacs that have lost their morals, conscience & soul. Motherf**kers would have been thrown into torture chambers if I had my way. I mean seriously, how many of us would have went that route. Ask yourself, why would you? Why even risk it, for some extra millions when you already have 10s of millions? WTF would any normal conscienable human being do with that much money? Anyone who would have gone the same route, is nothing more than a sadistic piece of sh*t in my book.