Enron et al .......

Enron et al .......

Didn't find your answer?

I'm just trying to use the www to get a brief summary of some major accounting scandals / collapses.

I just need a factual overveiw, perhaps with some examples of 'mis-accounting' or poor use of ethics / judgement etc.

I either seem to get reams of detail to the nth degree, or the overview is 'tabloid style' ie of dubious or limited factual content. (No disrespect to Sun readers meant).

Can anyone point me in the right direction.

Particularly interested in ...

Enron
Aurther Andersen
Worldcom
Parmalat
Arholt (Dutch)
United Airlines
Barings Bank
BCCI
Polly Peck
Mirror Group Newspapers

Thanks..

raymond downham

Replies (5)

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By velohead
26th Aug 2004 21:29

Need Some Middle Ground...
Thanks, I'll try Accountingweb [again].

I did a search on "ENRON" yesterday, using alta vista.

There were 3,250,000 matches.
BBC was in the top ten, quality reporting I thought.
Using the link I veiwed 9 pages of 'reporting' , mostly dating back to 2002 - blow by blow accounts of 'breaking news' often 'day by day'.
Also viewed the Guardian links, with similiar volume, similar style, and similiar age [2002].

After 30 mins of www-ing I am no more learn-ed about the Enron/Andersen saga.


My Points Are....
1)I agree, there is a lot [understatement] of info on the www.
2) IMHO, most of this info is either..
a) tabloid gloss with no substance
b) seemingly factual but volumous, and when analysed, "speaks a lot, but conveys very little" in terms of 'accounting/audit'.
3) We can all find a www link to Enron in 2.0 seconds flat, but finding a *useful* link is just a little bit harder.
[*useful* - read concise/factual/overview]

Take the Maxwell case.
We all know Maxwell raided the pensions of his employees.
How did that happen, exactly.
How did that get through auditors.

Saying 'he raided the pensions' is too general, a bit like the weather man saying
" the weather today will be *nice* "

My Challenge...
Can anyone find a *concise, factual, overview* of either Enron and/or Andersens

If you do, how long did it take you, please.
And what is the link of course.


Thanks for your comments so far.

Thanks (0)
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By AnonymousUser
25th Aug 2004 08:40

WWW search sites
You can go to yahoo.com!, altavista, etc and type polly peck or any other topic you want from the website.

I am afraid popular and meaningful topics are displayed in the WWW.

Best wishes.

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By AnonymousUser
27th Aug 2004 02:51

Try your lucky pick
Like-wise, when I surf yahoo.com! for corporate governance notes, the search site came up with plentiful supply of urls.

I just have to browse through very quickly which one header is probably suitable.

I know there are too plentiful supply of urls to confuse you, but at least plentiful is better than a few, right?

I really got no choice in my case, the same goes when I want to have some good notes on TQM or risk management.

Raymond, you can also get some Enron (and the like cases, Worldcom, Xerox, ....) cases if you care to surf corp governance. Unfortunately, I did not keep them when I got it sometime back.

Another good site you may like to try is http://visar.csustan.edu/aaba/aaba.htm. The great professor Prem certainly has a lot to impart to us. Prof Prem has contributed a lot to Accountingweb too when it comes to auditing.

Have you read .... ?https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=128177&d=101&h=0&f=0 and https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=129854&d=448&h=0&f=0 - these are not Enron cases but food for thought on similar grounds - auditing.

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By AnonymousUser
26th Aug 2004 08:14

Aweb history
During the Enron affair, AccountingWeb put together a great synopsis of what happened, when, etc.

Try doing a search on here on "Enron", and see what you get. Failing that, I'm sure an email to Aweb, and their helpful people wouldn't go amiss.

Regards

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By The Minion
19th Aug 2004 10:53

Try Blinkx
If you look back over the last couple of weeks there was a link to the above search engine.

I've just done a quick search and it has thrown up quite a lot of stuff re enron (interviews with execs etc).

The same would apply to the other names.

Hope this helps.

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