Chapter 1762

Later generations have been very curious. How did the good Enron suddenly explode?

Therefore, various versions of conspiracy theories were born. The most famous saying in later generations is that all these are big plans. Daqian learned about Enron's problem in advance, and then released Enron's loopholes while Kenneth was most proud, which eventually led to the collapse of Enron and Microsoft.

This is a very popular saying in later generations, which was once believed by many people. Even the teaching materials in the University used this saying. Later, Kenneth, who was over 90, was finally released from prison and was interviewed by a large number of media reporters. He finally told the truth of the incident that year.

It's just that the truth sounds so funny.

Let's call back some time to the weeks when the credit card virus was rampant.

During this time, Kenneth was excited to see Microsoft's share price rising and all kinds of bad luck of Hongmeng system, so that Kenneth seemed to forget that the system used by his own Enron company was also Hongmeng system.

Kenneth really should not forget this thing, because it was Kenneth who approved Enron to replace Hongmeng system.

As early as 1999, when Hongmeng system was just announced to be launched free of charge, Kenneth approved Enron to replace the office system from windows system to Hongmeng system, and Enron was also the first energy company in the whole United States to make such a decision.

The reason is simple, because Enron has no money.

Since 1995, Enron has entered a loss situation. By 1999, the funds actually available to Enron have been almost exhausted. Enron can only rely on various storytelling, various false financial reports and financial means to finance and maintain the operation of the company.

Therefore, in order to make Enron save some expenses as much as possible, Kenneth approved the company's proposal to replace most of the office system with Hongmeng system.

In this way, Enron can save about $10 million in genuine licensing fees for windows, which is also a lot of money.

Later, facts proved that there was no problem with this decision. Hongmeng system can still be used, and it feels good to use. Even the overall office efficiency should be improved a lot. Enron was very satisfied.

Of course, Kenneth won't remember these things, as long as Hongmeng doesn't have a problem.

However, when the credit card virus was rampant, Enron, which used Hongmeng system, was also recruited.

According to the regulations of the Securities Regulatory Commission, all listed companies must publicly publish their financial reports every quarter, which is a compulsory course for all listed companies. Enron is no exception, and their financial personnel have prepared a carefully decorated first quarter financial report early.

Because these financial personnel have been making fraud since 1995. By 2002, the level of fraud has been perfect. Even the top accounting firms in the industry will not be able to find problems in the financial report unless they stare at the financial report 24 hours a day and collect correct data through their own channels.

But the accounting firm obviously won't do so, so in Enron's view, the financial report is very stable.

In fact, this financial report is indeed very stable. The premise is that what you hand in must be this carefully prepared financial report.

Three days before the deadline for submitting the financial report, the director of the financial department conducted a final review of the financial report, and then carefully encrypted and saved it in his own computer. Then the financial officer received an email, which said that the financial director had a problem with his credit card and asked him to download the statement for verification!

"There can be no problem with my credit card! I'm afraid it's not issued by a fake bank!" the senior financial director is very confident in his financial ability. He will never believe that there is a problem with his credit card. If there is a problem, it's also a problem with the bank.

So the chief financial officer planned to look at this statement and find the bank's error... Then there was no more. Then the computer crashed directly. When he relied on reinstalling the system to open the computer, all the files in the hard disk had been deleted, including the financial statement.

This financial statement is the only financial statement of the whole Enron company.

Some people may wonder, how can a company as big as Enron have only one financial statement and no backup?

Don't say, the financial statement is really not backed up, because there are too many secrets hidden in the statement, which are enough for the financial director to spend more than ten years in prison.

He didn't trust anyone. He only trusted himself, so the final version of the financial statements was only in the director's personal computer, but unexpectedly, all these data were deleted.

The chief financial officer was stupid on the spot, because if he couldn't hand in the financial statements in three days, Enron would be in big trouble.

Because according to the regulations of the securities and Exchange Commission, if the financial statements are not submitted within the deadline, the CSRC will intervene to investigate whether there is something fishy in it and whether it is unable to submit the statements on schedule because the financial data are abnormal.

The rule of submitting financial statements within the time limit itself is to restrict all listed companies and prevent them from having sufficient time for financial fraud.

Of course, in the hands of some skilled experts, the securities and Exchange Commission has given them enough time to fake.

But the chief financial officer also knows that once the securities and Exchange Commission is involved in the investigation, there will be mistakes no matter how careful the means arranged by Enron.

The best way is to submit the financial statements on time, otherwise the securities and Exchange Commission has an excuse to investigate Enron.

But the report has been deleted. What should I do?

After thinking about it, the financial controller felt that the only way was to make a new report in three days.

Although the original report took three months to complete, it was impossible to see it in three days.

But in fact, all the data required for the financial statements have been collected. Even if the director's computer is gone, these data are also summarized in each of his computers. Just collect these data.

As for how to use these data to make another report, it's even simpler, because the financial controller has completed it once, and it's easy to complete it again without any problem.

The price is that the director spent 65 hours making new statements without eating or drinking, and finally submitted the statements to the securities and Exchange Commission before the deadline.

Then Enron exploded.