This news led to the downgrade of company debt which forced Enron to pay much more of their nearly one billion dollars in debt much sooner (Kaldec 2). Enron's stock was sent plummeting, forcing a Congressional investigation in December 2001. This investigation turned up the fact that Enron's partnerships were illegally kept off its books, and that Anderson had instructed employees to destroy much of the incriminating paperwork and records well before the investigation took place (Kaldec 1). The Securities and Exchange Commission also learned that documents were shredded shortly before its own investigation in 2002, and charges were brought against Anderson, Skilling, and Lay. Billions of dollars were lost in the years that Ken Lay, the company's founder who oversaw the entire operation and the many of the partnerships it had created through Skilling. Under Lay and Skilling, the company operated under...

Once the news came out that they had been doing so, the company was destroyed and its upper level managers, auditors, and accountants all put under the lens of extreme scrutiny by Congress, The Justice Department, and the SEC (Kaldec 3). Enron's downfall came not only through bad business practices, but also through its unwillingness to report its losses accurately. An argument could also be made that the deregulation of the natural gas and other markets created an environment were bad business practices could thrive. Enron took advantage of these deregulated markets by creating futures contracts and partnerships that were unable to make any return on initial investments.
Works Cited

Kadlec, Daniel. "Enron: Who's Accountable?" Time. 2002. 30 Nov. 2009.

NPR Radio. "Fall of Enron." NPR. 2002. NPR.ORG News Specials. 30 Nov. 2009.