Power Failure: The Depth of Moral Banruptcy - Sherron Watkins — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:07the alarming thing for so many of us
3. 0:09that worked at Enron was the depth of
4. 0:11the moral bankruptcy of the company
5. 0:14because on December 3rd Enron laid off
6. 0:18over 4,000 people 3 weeks before
7. 0:21Christmas with with nothing with a hint
8. 0:26and a promise at a four thousand dollar
9. 0:28severance check which doesn't get you
10. 0:29very far a hint and a promise that you
11. 0:32could buy your own Cobra insurance if
12. 0:35the bankruptcy judge approved a payment
13. 0:38to the insurance company you know and
14. 0:40all these employees heard last Friday
15. 0:44was your last paycheck go back to your
16. 0:46desk clear out your personal items and
17. 0:48go come to find out in January 2002 it
18. 0:52was disclosed that nearly 25 executives
19. 0:55well 25 executives paid themselves
20. 0:57nearly 55 million dollars the last week
21. 1:00before bankruptcy one person got 8
22. 1:03million another person 5 million a
23. 1:05couple people got 1.5 million
24. 1:07there were several 750 thousand dollar
25. 1:10amounts now this was to stay at the
26. 1:13company for three months till the end of
27. 1:15February
28. 1:16now that was that was just an outrageous
29. 1:19amount of money to stay for three months
30. 1:21these executives gave themselves a three
31. 1:24to five year cushion if their annual
32. 1:27base pay usually at Enron the maximum
33. 1:29base pay was about two hundred and fifty
34. 1:31thousand dollars so these executives
35. 1:33gave themselves quite a large cushion
36. 1:36and then had the gall to stand up in
37. 1:38front of thousands of other employees
38. 1:40and say you know bye-bye
39. 1:43it's three weeks before Christmas sorry
40. 1:45you don't have anything more from us you
41. 1:47know it's been great working with you
42. 1:48sorry to have to do this and that's
43. 1:51outrageous I just think those those top
44. 1:53guys that made the decision to do such
45. 1:56large bonuses or just as crooked as Andy
46. 1:59Fastow they stuck their hand in that
47. 2:01cash drawer the week before bankruptcy
48. 2:03and piled as much cash in their pockets
49. 2:05as they could and and that was so
50. 2:08alarming now of course that was in the
51. 2:10press there's been a deferred
52. 2:12compensation scandal there's been
53. 2:15various scandals but but actually part
54. 2:17of the reason for doing
55. 2:19the book on my behalf was to show a real
56. 2:24human story of how many good smart
57. 2:27people could see warning signs but still
58. 2:29stay and so me me using me as a
59. 2:32character in the book and as she shows
60. 2:34that even as early as 96 I saw some
61. 2:36aggressive accounting that made me very
62. 2:38uncomfortable
63. 2:39however when the stock price is rising
64. 2:42your pay is good the business trips are
65. 2:45lavish and when your business leaders
66. 2:48your your top guys are on the front page
67. 2:50of Business Week or Forbes or fortune
68. 2:53it's it's really easy to say you know
69. 2:57I'm gonna put those nagging concerns
70. 2:59behind maybe I just don't get it you
71. 3:01know maybe I'm just a little
72. 3:03old-fashioned in my accounting theories
73. 3:06and the world is changing and it's very
74. 3:09easy to stick with that company and I'll
75. 3:13give you a for instance of that the most
76. 3:14recent corporate scandal is HealthSouth