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Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. It grew rapidly in the 1990s and became one of the largest companies in the world, with revenues of over $100 billion. Enron used special purpose entities (SPEs) to move debt and losses off its balance sheet, which made the company's financial statements appear healthier than they actually were. The SPEs were used to hide Enron's debts and losses from investors and regulators. Enron's auditor at the time, Arthur Andersen, was accused of failing to detect or report the fraudulent accounting practices. Andersen was also found to have destroyed documents related to the Enron audit. In 2001, Enron's stock price began to decline rapidly, and the company filed for bankruptcy in December of that year. The scandal led to the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the largest accounting firms in the world at the time. The Enron scandal had a significant impact on investors and the industry as a whole. Enron's investors lost billions of dollars when the company's stock price plummeted, and many employees lost their jobs when the company went bankrupt. The scandal also led to a loss of trust in the auditing profession and raised concerns about the effectiveness of regulations and oversight in the corporate world. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was enacted in response to the scandal, to improve corporate governance, accountability, and transparency. The Enron scandal remains a cautionary tale for investors, regulators, and auditors about the importance of maintaining high ethical standards and conducting thorough audits to detect and prevent fraud. Question: Determine what steps Enron could have taken to prevent the scandal?
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