Enron: A Professional's Guide To The Events, Ethical Issues, And Proposed Reforms

Enron: A Professional's Guide to the Events, Ethical Issues, and Proposed Reforms

The scandals involving Enron and other high-profile companies reflect deep-rooted problems in individual ethics and conflicts of interest embedded in our financial and business systems. The fallout from these scandals will profoundly change the accounting, corporate finance, and investment fields. Proposed reforms may help to avert future scandals, but they will have a limited impact if they are not accompanied by a renewed sense of ethics among accountants, attorneys, corporate executives, investment bankers, and security analysts. Written by Art Berkowitz, an accountant and educator who has taught on ethics for many years, ENRON provides a perspective on the scandal that is missing in day-to-day news accounts. It explains the collision of forces that led to the debacle; it illuminates the deeper issues underlying the scandal; and it analyzes the regulatory reforms that have been proposed. At the hear of the scandal are conflicts or interest and ethical ambiguities that are pervasive in the auditing, corporate governance, financial reporting, and investment analysis fields. While the structural weaknesses can be addressed through regulatory and legal reform, the deeper issue of individual ethical behavior needs to be addressed at entirely different levels -- by industry associations, firms and companies, and ultimately, by individuals themselves. ENRON illuminates these issues in way that will enable professionals to look a themselves and their own firms to determine what changes they need to make to maintain their individual and firm-wide integrity. Topics include: -- The Scandal: How It Happened -- Key Players -- The Action -- Accounting Reforms -- Corporate Governance, Legal, Security Reforms -- Social and Political Issues -- Lessons To Be Learned -- Does It Pay To Be Ethical? -- Ethics, Rules, and True Integrity. Included in the book are source materials including key memos and internal documents related to the scandal and ensuring investigations. ENRON comes complete with study questions and answers, and a quizzer, designed for professionals to earn Continuing Professional Education credits. (Grading and administration fee additional) About the Author Art Berkowitz is a leading authority and educator on financial and ethical issues. He conducsts workshops and seminars on accounting, auditing, investment planning, professional conduct and workplace ethics. Prior to opening his own practice, Art was a partner in a Miami accounting firm and also spent six years with Coopers & Lybrand and Laventhol & Horwath. He is a member of the National Speakers Association and received the highest ratings for his presentations.