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White Collar Crime Fbi Investigation

Decent Essays

Introduction: It was 13 years ago that the announcement of bankruptcy by Enron Corporation, an American energy, commodities and service firm at the time, would unravel a scandal resulting in what is regarded as the most multifaceted white-collar crime FBI investigation conducted in history. High-ranking officials at the Houston-based company swindled investors and managed to further their own wealth through intricate, shifty accounting practices such as listing assets above their true value to increase cash inflows and earnings statements. This had the effect of making the company and its shares look more enticing than they really were to potential investors. Upon their declaration of negative net worth in December 2001, shareholders filed a $40 billion lawsuit against the company, citing a drop of shares from around $90 per share to around $1 per share within only a few months. In light of these events, officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SCE) were prompted to initiate further investigation to figure out how such a drastic loss occurred. White-collar crime can be summed up in a nutshell by the following three deviant behaviors, all of which we hope to establish as morally wrong to our youth: lying, cheating and stealing. The term, coined in 1939, has become an umbrella term encompassing a full spectrum of frauds committed by business (potentially corporate), government professionals and a growing number of individuals capable of cyberspace hijacking. The

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