Enron Scandal

Once America's seventh-largest company, Enron used systematic accounting fraud and special purpose entities to hide billions in debt, wiping out $74 billion in shareholder value when it collapsed in 2001. The fraud involved over 3,000 offshore entities and falsified $7 billion in earnings, enabling the company to hide $30 billion in debt while executives cashed out $1.1 billion in stock before the collapse.