An elaborate parody seems to be behind an effort to resurrect Enron, the Houston-based power firm that exemplified the worst in American company fraud and greed after it went bankrupt in 2001.
If its return is comedic, some former staff who misplaced all the things in Enron’s collapse aren’t laughing.
“It’s a pretty sick joke and it disparages the people that did work there. And why would you want to even bring it back up again?” mentioned former Enron worker Diana Peters, who represented staff within the firm’s chapter proceedings.
Right here’s what to know in regards to the historical past of Enron and the purported effort to convey it again.
What occurred at Enron?
As soon as the nation’s seventh-largest firm, Enron filed for chapter safety on Dec. 2, 2001, after years of accounting methods may now not disguise billions of {dollars} in debt or make failing ventures seem worthwhile. The power firm’s collapse put greater than 5,000 folks out of labor and worn out greater than $2 billion in worker pensions. Its aftershocks have been felt all through the power sector.
Twenty-four Enron executives, together with former CEO Jeffrey Skilling, have been convicted for his or her roles within the fraud. Enron founder Ken Lay’s convictions have been vacated after he died of coronary heart illness following his 2006 trial.
Is Enron coming again?
On Monday — the twenty third anniversary of the chapter submitting — an organization representing itself as Enron introduced in a information launch it was relaunching as a “company dedicated to solving the global energy crisis.” It additionally posted a video on social media, marketed on a minimum of one Houston billboard and a took out a full-page advert within the Houston Chronicle
Within the minute-long video filled with generic company jargon, the corporate talks about “growth” and “rebirth.” It ends with the phrases, “We’re back. Can we talk?”
In an electronic mail, firm spokesperson Will Chabot mentioned the brand new Enron was not doing any interviews but, however “We’ll have more to share soon.”
Indicators level to the comeback being a joke.
Within the “terms of use and conditions of sale” on the corporate’s web site, it says “the information on the website about Enron is First Amendment protected parody, represents performance art, and is for entertainment purposes only.”
Paperwork filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace present Faculty Firm, an Arkansas-based LLC, owns the Enron trademark. The co-founder of Faculty Firm is Connor Gaydos, who helped create a joke conspiracy idea claiming all birds are literally authorities surveillance drones.
What do former Enron staff consider the corporate’s return?
Peters mentioned she and another former staff are upset and suppose the relaunch was “in poor taste.”
“If it’s a joke, it’s rude, extremely rude. And I hope that they realize it and apologize to all of the Enron employees,” Peters mentioned.
Peters, 74, mentioned she continues to be working in data expertise as a result of “I lost everything in Enron, and so my Social Security doesn’t always take care of things I need done.”
“Enron’s downfall taught us critical lessons about corporate ethics, accountability, and the consequences of unchecked ambition. Enron’s legacy was the employees in the trenches. Leave Enron buried,” she mentioned.
However Sherron Watkins, Enron’s former vp of company improvement and the primary whistleblower who helped uncover the scandal, mentioned she didn’t have an issue with the joke as a result of comedy “usually helps us focus on an uncomfortable historical event that we’d rather ignore.”
“I think we use prior scandals to try to teach new generations what can go wrong with big companies,” mentioned Watkins, who nonetheless speaks at schools and conferences in regards to the Enron scandal.
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This story was corrected to repair the spelling of Ken Lay’s first title, which had been misspelled “Key.”
