Chapter 1762
Words:1474Update:23/01/07 22:44:51
Later generations had always been very curious. Why would it suddenly explode out of nowhere?
Hence, all kinds of conspiracy theories were born. The most famous theory in the future is that Da Qian was the one behind all this. Da Qian knew about Enron's problems in advance and took advantage of Kenneth's arrogance to reveal Enron's flaws. In the end, Enron collapsed, and Microsoft also collapsed.
This was a very popular saying in the later generations, and many people believed it to be true. Even the textbooks in universities used this saying. Later on, Kenneth, who was over 90 years old, was finally released from prison. When he was interviewed by a swarm of media reporters, he finally revealed the truth of what had happened back then.
It was just that this truth sounded so funny.
Let's rewind time to the few weeks when the credit card virus was rampant.
During this period, Kenneth is looking at Microsoft's share prices rising excitedly. Because of the Hongmeng system's bad luck, Kenneth had forgotten that Enron is also using the Hongmeng system.
Kenneth should not have forgotten about this because he is the one who approved Enron to change the Hongmeng system.
In 1999, when the Hongmeng system was announced to be free of charge, Kenneth had approved Enron to change their office system from Windows to Hongmeng system. Enron is the first company in the United States to make this decision.
The reason is simple. Enron had run out of funds.
Since 1995, Enron had been incurring losses, and in 1999, Enron's funds are almost depleted. Enron can only rely on stories and fake financial reports to raise funds and maintain the company's operations.
So, to save Enron's expenses, Kenneth approved the company's proposal to switch most of the office systems to the Hongmeng system.
This way, Enron can save about 10 million USD of licensing fees for the Windows operating system. This is not a small sum.
In the end, this decision is proven to be correct. Hongmeng system can still be used, and it feels good to use it. The efficiency of the office is also increased, and everyone in Enron is satisfied with this decision.
Of course, Kenneth will not remember these things as long as Hongmeng system is fine.
But when credit card viruses started to spread, Enron, which uses the Hongmeng system, was also affected.
According to the regulations of the Securities Regulatory Commission, all listed companies must publish their financial reports every quarter. Enron is no exception. Their finance department had prepared a detailed financial report for the first quarter.
This was because these financial personnel had been falsifying since 1995. By 2002, the level of falsification had reached the point of perfection. Even the top accounting firms in the industry would not be able to discover the problems in the financial report unless they stared at the financial report 24 hours a day and collected the correct data through their own channels.
But the accounting firm will not do this. That's why Enron felt this financial report is safe.
This financial report was actually very reliable, but the premise was that it had to be a carefully prepared financial report.
Three days before the financial report was due to be submitted, the director of the finance department conducted a final review of the financial report. Then, he carefully encrypted the report and stored it in his own computer. Then, the finance staff received an email. The email said that the finance director had a problem with his credit card and asked him to download the statement for verification!
"There can't be any problems with my credit card! This report must be issued by a fake bank! " This senior finance director is very confident of his financial capabilities. He does not believe that there is a problem with his credit card. If there is a problem, it will be the bank's fault.
Therefore, the financial director planned to look at the statement and find the bank's mistake from it … and then there was no more and then. The computer directly crashed. When he relied on the rebooting system to turn on the computer, all the files on the hard drive had been deleted, including the financial statement.
This financial report is the only financial report in Enron.
Some people might be curious. How can a big company like Enron only have one financial report? Why is there no backup?
This financial report does not have a backup copy because there are too many secrets hidden in this financial report. These secrets are enough for this finance director to be locked up in prison for the rest of his life.
This finance director does not trust anyone and only trusts himself. That's why the final version of the financial report is stored in his personal computer. But he did not expect all the data to be deleted.
The financial director was dumbfounded on the spot. If they couldn't submit the financial report in three days, An Ran would be in big trouble.
According to the regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, if the financial statements were not submitted by the deadline, the Securities and Exchange Commission would intervene and investigate whether there was something fishy going on. They would investigate whether the financial data was abnormal and could not be submitted on time.
The rule of submitting financial statements within a time limit was to restrain listed companies and prevent them from having sufficient time to fabricate financial statements.
Of course, the Securities and Exchange Commission will give them enough time to fabricate the financial report.
But the Chief Financial Officer knows that once the Securities and Exchange Commission is involved in the investigation, there will be mistakes no matter how meticulous Enron's arrangements are.
The best solution is to submit the financial report on time. If not, the Securities and Exchange Commission will have an excuse to investigate Enron.
But the financial report is deleted. What should he do?
After thinking for a while, the chief financial officer decided that the only way was to use three days to come up with a new report.
Although the original financial report took three months to complete, it is impossible to prepare it in three days.
But the data for the financial report is already collected. Even if the financial report is deleted from the finance director's personal computer, the data is stored in his subordinates' computers. All he needs to do is to collect the data.
As for how to use the data to prepare a new financial report, it is easy. This finance director had completed the report once, and it is easy for him to do it again.
The price was that the director worked for 65 hours. He didn't eat, drink, rest, or sleep to make the new report. Finally, he handed the report to the Securities and Exchange Commission before the deadline.
Then, Enron exploded.
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