Sherron Watkins Tells All About How Her Life Changed After Enron — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:07and the most vindication came about from
3. 0:10something known as the powers report
4. 0:12and when enron was totally falling apart
5. 0:16our asleep of the switch
6. 0:18board of directors finally
7. 0:21hired an outside law firm an outside
8. 0:23accounting firm to investigate my
9. 0:25concerns and to look into a few other
10. 0:27things
11. 0:28and they added bill powers to the board
12. 0:30and he was running this
13. 0:32this investigation
14. 0:34and bill powers was the dean of the
15. 0:37school of law at university of texas at
16. 0:40austin
17. 0:41and so this report has his name on it
18. 0:44it's known as the powers report and they
19. 0:46filed it early february 2002
20. 0:49and that really vindicated me it
21. 0:51basically said everything i had claimed
22. 0:53was true and there's even some more
23. 0:55rotten stuff
24. 0:57so that felt safer i i was no longer the
25. 1:01one lone voice that was saying enron had
26. 1:03committed fraud
27. 1:06yeah i mean how different would your
28. 1:07life have been if that staffer didn't go
29. 1:09into that archive box
30. 1:11have you thought about that before
31. 1:13um
32. 1:14well yeah it'd be very different you
33. 1:16know because i i think i would have
34. 1:18worked at enron maybe a month or two
35. 1:20more and then i would have been part of
36. 1:21that 5 000 trying to find
37. 1:24you know
38. 1:25a job
39. 1:27yeah
40. 1:28so you definitely took the scenic route
41. 1:32yeah
42. 1:33so um
43. 1:35walking into congress what was that like
44. 1:37i mean it's kind of this interesting
45. 1:39dynamic that you were kind of a part of
46. 1:41because
47. 1:42you
48. 1:43it's almost like uh the allegiance can
49. 1:45differ between your country and your
50. 1:47government and you know what i find is
51. 1:49that whistleblowers to your point are
52. 1:51some of the most loyal people they're
53. 1:53some of the most conscientious people
54. 1:54they're the most value driven people and
55. 1:56they're really being super loyal to this
56. 1:59idea that of what the company is or the
57. 2:01idea of what the company is supposed to
58. 2:02be as stated on its values page or on
59. 2:04its mission or something and yet there's
60. 2:06this um this sort of paradox where
61. 2:09management is maybe pushing in a
62. 2:10different direction due to their own
63. 2:11self-interest or something where there's
64. 2:13this sort of like
65. 2:15uh and i think this is why a lot of uh
66. 2:18whistleblowers get blackballed which i'd
67. 2:19love to talk about a little bit but um
68. 2:22there's this interesting sort of uh
69. 2:25dissonance between like the source of
70. 2:27the loyalty and sometimes you think
71. 2:29you're working you know you're trying to
72. 2:30be loyal to the company when actually
73. 2:32someone has sort of taken advantage of
74. 2:33you and i think we saw an example of
75. 2:34that as you were kind of brought in to
76. 2:36help kind of build the defense
77. 2:38when it became clear to you
78. 2:40uh that okay hey you know
79. 2:43there's kind of nothing to save you know
80. 2:45there's no way to save the sinking
81. 2:46titanic and then you're brought into
82. 2:48congress what was that like walking in
83. 2:50there and as you look down down the path
84. 2:53where you're like okay i'm kind of in
85. 2:54the grease now these guys pushed me in
86. 2:56the grease what were those feelings like
87. 2:58when you're like how do i get up out of
88. 2:59this thing
89. 3:00and kind of land back on my feet
90. 3:03it's it's interesting because they
91. 3:05congress did subpoena
92. 3:07ken lay
93. 3:09um our risk management person richard
94. 3:12bai rick causey our chief accounting
95. 3:14officer andy bastow
96. 3:16and
97. 3:17they all plead the fifth you know i'm
98. 3:20like you know they went there they held
99. 3:22up their hand to tell the truth the
100. 3:23whole truth and nothing but the truth
101. 3:25but when asked questions
102. 3:26you know they said i'm pleading the
103. 3:28fifth fifth amendment jeff skilling did
104. 3:31testify he was the only you know one of
105. 3:33the only few executives but but a few
106. 3:36others did too the lawyers testified
107. 3:38jeff mcmahon testified
108. 3:41and what i found in in watching and
109. 3:44paying attention to their congressional
110. 3:46testimony
111. 3:47is they sure did they sure had trouble
112. 3:49recalling a lot of things
113. 3:52you know i just don't recall that or yes
114. 3:54i know i wrote that down but you know
115. 3:56that was four years ago or two years ago
116. 3:59and for me
117. 4:01when when i was called to testify you
118. 4:04know you're sworn to tell the truth the
119. 4:06whole truth and nothing but the truth
120. 4:08and so i
121. 4:10i kind of felt like i sure don't want to
122. 4:12lie
123. 4:13you know the truth that i know i'm
124. 4:15supposed to tell the whole truth
125. 4:16so
126. 4:17it was a lot of testimony
127. 4:20really pointing out where the problems
128. 4:22were kind of helped mark the
129. 4:23prosecutional trail
130. 4:25on where enron had problems and
131. 4:28at that point
132. 4:29you know enron was already bankrupt
133. 4:31you're really wanting the truth to come
134. 4:33out so
135. 4:34the guilty people might be held to
136. 4:36account but that there might be some
137. 4:38lessons learned from it right yeah
138. 4:40that's a good point um
139. 4:42i want to kind of dive into the label
140. 4:45and you know
141. 4:47you know very few whistleblowers that
142. 4:49we've spoken to would say i wouldn't do
143. 4:51it again because they're just those
144. 4:52kinds of people
145. 4:53um
146. 4:54but how difficult was your life after
147. 4:58you stood on your principles and how
148. 5:00long did it take for whatever negative
149. 5:03uh label or whatever
150. 5:05that was attached to you for
151. 5:07oddly paradoxically doing the right
152. 5:09thing to kind of fall off you know what
153. 5:11i mean
154. 5:13and that's a great question i am
155. 5:17i mean it
156. 5:19i'm the only whistleblower that has a
157. 5:20great story
158. 5:22you know all that congressional
159. 5:23testimony
160. 5:25um you know time put us on their cover
161. 5:28i i
162. 5:29i had immediate speaking requests you
163. 5:32know all over the country and you know
164. 5:34i've been to some fantastic places
165. 5:36around the globe talking about
166. 5:37leadership and ethics so i have a very
167. 5:40good story
168. 5:42you know able to make a living on the
169. 5:43lecture circuit but as i sought out
170. 5:46corporate employment those doors would
171. 5:48be shut and even
172. 5:50i used to live two blocks from rice
173. 5:51university and looked at participating
174. 5:54in some of their executive sessions and
175. 5:55their executive training and it looked
176. 5:58like it was a big wide open door of
177. 6:00opportunity
178. 6:02um until it until that door was slammed
179. 6:04shut
180. 6:05so i think it's taken almost 20 years
181. 6:08for the full troublemaker aspect of it
182. 6:11to wash off i mean as i mentioned i'm
183. 6:14i'm now the executive in resident
184. 6:16residence at texas state university
185. 6:18first full-time job in 20 years
186. 6:22so that's a long time
187. 6:24you know for that label to be to be
188. 6:26washed off
189. 6:28[Music]
190. 6:35you