Word: enronization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...dial-up, the meeting proved relatively uneventful. Lay seemed composed but genuinely concerned and said he would have attorneys look into the questionable deals. Though Watkins counseled against it, Lay suggested--and eventually selected--Enron's law firm, Vinson & Elkins, to conduct the inquiry. Nevertheless, Watkins left feeling buoyed. "I felt, 'Oh, good, now he knows,'" she says. "There was a feeling that I had done the hardest thing in my life, but I had carried the torch and dropped it off." For the first time that week, she slept through the night. In late September, even after netting...
...high was short-lived. Some laid-off Enron employees began blaming Watkins for not taking her concerns to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Others fumed that in late August and October 2001, after writing her memos, Watkins unloaded $47,000 in Enron stock--moves she says were motivated by advice from her accountant and 9/11 jitters, respectively. By far the most intense criticism has centered on Watkins' decision to sell her story in book and movie deals and on the lecture circuit...
...message is not one of strict self-promotion. In her speeches, she champions the rights of the individual investor and calls for a reformed corporate-governance structure. She hopes her book will "cleanse the resumes of the good people at Enron." And the fact is, she has to make a living. She has always paid most of the bills, and in September, Rick quit his job to spend more time with the family. Now she brings home the only paycheck. And financial worries have led the couple to postpone their plans for having a second child. "Personally," she sighs, "that...
...deflated as she can sometimes sound, Watkins does not for a moment regret her actions. A few weeks ago, when she was unpacking the boxes she had taken from her Enron office, she happened upon a green sticky-note pad that the firm once handed out to employees. It contains a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." She smacked her palm against her forehead. "You look at it and you think, 'Oh, my God, look how many people at Enron stayed silent," she says, "That...
Take in a ball game at the stadium that bore Enron's name, and you'll be sitting in a place now called Minute Maid Park. The tilted E that blazed in front of Enron's Houston headquarters is gone, sold at auction. At its offices, a pared-down staff administers old contracts and remaining assets like gas pipelines and power plants. It's nothing like the days when secretaries received gifts of Waterford crystal and executives jetted to luxury resorts to party. Enron's Christmas bash this year: an afternoon gathering in the lobby with coffee, cookies and music...