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Sherron Watkins, the Enron vice president who first called her company's finances into question, listens to a question
following her keynote address to the Women's Economic Club luncheon March 26, 2001, in Dearborn, Michigan. (Photo by
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
Facts:
Enron was ranked as America's fifth largest company by Fortune magazine in
2002, despite its 2001 bankruptcy filing.
Executives including Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were prosecuted for fraud-
related crimes.
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Key figures sold their stock shortly before the company announced a sharp
downturn in earnings.
Timeline:
1985 - Houston Natural Gas merges with Omaha-based InterNorth to form Enron.
1990 - Skilling, an energy consultant, is hired to run a new subsidiary called Enron
Finance Corp.
February 12, 2001 - Skilling becomes CEO while Lay stays on as chairman.
August 14, 2001 - Skilling resigns and Lay becomes CEO again.
August 2001 - Sherron Watkins, a vice president, warns Lay that the company
could "implode in a wave of accounting scandals."
October 16, 2001 - Enron announces a third-quarter loss of $618 million. The
company later reveals that it overstated earnings dating back to 1997.
October 31, 2001 - The company discloses that it is under formal investigation by
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
November 28, 2001 - Dynegy announces it has terminated merger talks with
Enron.
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January 10, 2002 - Arthur Andersen LLP, the accounting firm that handled Enron's
audits, discloses that its employees had destroyed company documents.
January 15, 2002 - The New York Stock Exchange suspends trading of Enron
shares.
January 17, 2002 - Enron ends its partnership with Arthur Andersen.
January 23, 2002 - Lay resigns as CEO. He later steps down from the board of
directors.
January 25, 2002 - Former Enron vice chairman J. Clifford Baxter is found dead in
an apparent suicide.
February 12, 2002 - Lay invokes his Fifth Amendment right before the Senate
Commerce Committee.
March 14, 2002 - The DOJ indicts Arthur Andersen for obstruction of justice. A
jury later returns a guilty verdict for the accounting firm. The Supreme Court later
overturns the conviction.
February 19, 2004 - Skilling is charged with 35 counts of fraud and insider
trading. He pleads not guilty.
July 7, 2004 - Lay is indicted. He is charged with conspiracy, securities fraud, wire
fraud, bank fraud and making false statements. During his arraignment the next
day, he pleads not guilty to all 11 charges and is released on $500,000 unsecured
bond.
May 25, 2006 - Skilling and Lay are convicted of conspiracy and fraud. Skilling is
also convicted on one count of insider trading and five counts of making false
statements. The jury acquits Skilling on nine additional counts of insider trading.
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May 11, 2009 - Skilling files a petition with the Supreme Court to overturn his
conviction after appeals with the lower courts fail.
May 9, 2010 - "Enron," a Broadway musical about the company's collapse, closes
on Broadway 12 days after opening amid slow ticket sales.
June 21, 2013 - A federal judge reduces Skilling's sentence by more than 10
years. In return, Skilling agrees to stop challenging his conviction and forfeit
roughly $42 million that will be distributed among the victims of the Enron fraud.
February 21, 2019 - Skilling is released after serving over 12 years in federal
prison.
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