The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 43 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
The SEC let Enron recognize 20 years of future cash flows immediately
“The SEC allowed them to go out to 20 years that they could collapse into today revenue.”
Gilbert: Enron's Rebecca Mark Sold $83M in Stock Without Charges
“She sold about eighty-three million dollars of stock. She actually got out early enough, and she was sort of cast out by the male executives at the top in a way where she was actually never accused of any wrongdoing and never really a part of the prosecution o…”
Enron's CFO didn't track the company's total debt, cash, or maturity schedules
“McMahon learns that not only did Fastow not know how much debt Enron as an organization had, he also didn't know how much cash they had, and he also didn't know the maturity schedule of the debt, so he didn't know And thus, nobody in finance knew the company t…”
Kenneth Lay concealed massive stock dumps by repaying Enron loans with equity
“But the way he repaid them was he took cash loans from Enron. So Enron loaned him cash. What a merry-go-round. And Ken backed his collateral for that cash that he ended up then repaying the loans to Enron with, Was the Enron stock that he originally had taken …”
Rosenthal: John Arnold got Enron's largest non-executive bonus of $8M
“Yeah, he got the largest cash bonus that Enron ever gave to anybody who wasn't a senior executive of, I think, eight million dollars.”
Enron's audit committee chair was the dean of Stanford's business school
“The chair of the audit committee of Enron's board during all the years that all this was going on was the dean of Stanford Business School, who was an accounting professor.”
Gilbert: Skilling deliberately avoided signing off on Fastow's LJM partnership documents
“There are documents that surface that have a variety of signatures on them, but not skillings. He very intentionally was like I'm not actually gonna sign off on this, but it's kind of good for Enron that it happens, so I'm gonna let it keep happening.”
Gilbert: Dynegy Term Sheet Included a $60M Cash Bonus for Ken Lay
“As a part of the Dyna-G term sheet, upon completion of the deal, Ken Lay just got sixty million dollars in cash as, like, a bonus.”
Enron left behind approximately $1 trillion in claims across 30,000 creditors
“Enron left behind a trillion dollars of claims to 30,000 creditors.”
Skilling made mark-to-market accounting a mandatory condition for joining Enron
“It was that Jeff Skilling insisted that in order to join Enron and start this new division, Ken Lay and the board had to agree to use mark-to-market accounting.”
Rosenthal: Bush's parents flew on Enron jet to 2001 presidential inauguration
“The Bush family was very close. So close, in fact, that when W was inaugurated president, George H.W. And Barbara Bush traveled from Houston to Washington for the inauguration with Lay on the Enron corporate jet.”
Rosenthal: Enron bank settlements totaled $7.2B, paying $6.79 per common share
“Well, in September, The whole suite of settlements with a whole variety of banks, JP Morgan, Citigroup, various others, come in for a total of 7.2 billion dollars coming into this rotting carcass of Enron, which results in a distribution of six dollars and 79 …”
Rosenthal: Enron was a key player in California blackouts
“They become a key player in the total disaster that is the California blackouts.”
Enron's 'Death Star' scheme exploited imaginary transmission schedules for profit
“Well, it was this experiment where Enron filed an imaginary transmission schedule in order to get paid to alleviate congestion that didn't really exist.”
Gilbert: EnronOnline Launched in November 1999 as Counterparty to Every Trade
“In November of 99, they launched something called Enron Online, and what this is, is it allows all of Enron's counterparties to trade with them electronically. So they stand up and exchange, like an exchange you can access through a web browser, much like FTX,…”
Rosenthal: Pre-SOX accounting allowed deconsolidating SPEs with 3% outside capital
“If you set this up, as long as at least three percent, three, one, two, three percent of the capital in that entity comes from outside investors, you can still have The company itself own 97% of the economics of that entity, and you can remove it from your con…”
Enron's Raptor hedges were collateralized by Enron's own stock
“The Raptors, I believe, were hedges, intended to be hedges on some of Enron's investments, but the actual mechanism and the underlying collateral that they used for the hedge was Enron's stock itself. So they became this, like, massively toxic, like, they didn…”
Enron CFO Andrew Fastow won CFO Magazine's 1999 capital structure award
“He ends up not winning, but he does get a special award from CFO magazine for CFO excellence in the category of capital structure management.”
Rosenthal: Lay Sold $300M and Skilling Sold $200M in Enron Shares
“All told, I think Lay sells about three hundred million dollars worth of Enron stock via these transactions. Skilling sells about two hundred million, and Fastow and a bunch of the other executives sell a whole bunch too.”
Fastow revealed Enron actually held $34 billion in debt, not $12.8 billion
“So he comes back to Lay and the board and says, our actual obligations are thirty four billion dollars, which the debt on the balance sheet was 12.8 billion dollars.”
Enron booked $100 million in day-one revenue for an unlaunched Blockbuster partnership
“Oh, the service never launched. But of course, with Enron's Mark to Market, they booked over a hundred million dollars in revenue on day one for it, and then they offloaded the project to a special purpose entity.”
Gilbert: Enron was first non-financial company to use mark-to-market accounting
“But it is worth pointing out that Enron, when they did adopt this, became the very first non-financial company to use this method.”
Gilbert: Enron Recognized More Revenue by Terminating Blockbuster Exclusivity Deal
“So that creates a huge amount of future value for Enron, the company, their shareholders, and so they literally recognized revenue even bigger than the Blockbuster deal after the lack of Blockbuster deal.”
Enron executive Lou Pai cashed out $250 million to finance his divorce
“He ends up leaving Enron well before the fall, and he sells his stock to finance the divorce for a quarter billion dollars. He makes two hundred and fifty million dollars.”
Enron's reported revenue surged 7.5x from $13.3 billion to over $100 billion
“And they would have a five year run from 1996 to 2001, during which revenues grew 7.5 X during those five years. They went from 13.3 billion in 1996 To over a hundred billion in the year 2000, and every year during that period from 96 through 2001, the company…”
Ben Gilbert: John Arnold founded top-performing hedge fund Centaurus after Enron
“John Arnold went on to start the firm Centaurus, which is one of the highest-performing hedge funds ever.”
The Enron logo was graphic designer Paul Rand's final work
“This would be the last logo that the legendary Paul Rand designed before he died.”
Enron Strategy Shifted Finance From Cost Center to Profit Engine
“So when skilling gets elevated to number two and fast out to CFO the company, they start articulating as the company strategy that the finance department is going to go from being this shared resource cost center to a profit generating division of the company.”
Gilbert: Banks refused new debt lines before Enron tapped revolving credit
“They actually went and asked the banks, hey, can we get new debt lines with you, and every single one said no, and so they pulled the credit lines, which the banks have no option. It's already negotiated and signed.”
Rosenthal: Berkshire Hathaway Energy acquired Enron's former pipeline assets from Dynegy
“Who ends up buying the pipelines but Berkshire Hathaway Energy.”
Fastow planned to leave Enron to run billion-dollar LJM3 fund
“He actually had, LJM III was in the works to be a billion dollar fund, and if that came together, he was just gonna peace out and go do that.”
Rosenthal: Enron reduced reported trading losses to under $100M in 1987
“This time, Lei does fire them, and fortunately for Young and Ron and for Lei, but unfortunately for the rest of the world, this happens early enough in the quarter that the trading floor is able to dig out enough of these losses that they don't have to report …”
Rosenthal: McLean's 2001 Fortune story questioned Enron without alleging fraud
“It's not that bad of an article from Enron's perspective. Like, the biggest question it raises is not one of fraud. It's exactly what you said, Ben. It's like, Enron is a black box. Nobody can figure out what's going on here. But there's no accusations of frau…”
Gilbert: Enron delayed releasing balance sheets and cash flow statements after earnings calls
“On their earnings calls, they are releasing a profit and loss statement, and then, like, a little, a few weeks later, coming out with a balance sheet and a cash flow statement.”
Ben Gilbert: Kinder Morgan is worth $40B and Richard Kinder $8B
“It was an energy pipeline, and today, Kinder Morgan is a forty billion dollar company, and Kinder Is a billionaire. He's worth like eight billion dollars.”
Gilbert: John Ray recovered $13B (36¢/$1) for Enron's creditors
“He was able to get thirteen billion out to creditors, which is about 36 cents on the dollar. Much better than the 17 cents that Stephen Cooper, that his plan called for.”
Ben Gilbert: GE's wind energy business was acquired from Enron
“GE bought the wind business from Enron, and I believe even today is sort of the cornerstone of their wind energy business.”
Rosenthal: Skilling negotiated Enron offer while wife was in labor
“He calls them up to do the final negotiations of the terms of his offer. He calls them up from the hospital where he is with his wife while his wife is in labor with their, I think, second child.”
Rosenthal: Dynegy agreed to acquire Enron for $8B and lent $1.5B
“Dyna G's gonna Acquire Enron for eight billion dollars, an all stock deal, no cash, but Enron of course needs more cash to survive until the deal can close and Dynergy can complete its due diligence. So Dynergy lends one and a half billion dollars to Enron in …”
Enron won Fortune's Most Innovative Company award six consecutive years
“It was even named Fortune Magazine's most innovative company six years in a row.”