The Value of Courage with Barbara Walters - Sherron Watkins — Transcript

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1. 0:01[Music]
2. 0:07let's see so far we've touched on
3. 0:09television sports news medicine but
4. 0:13wasn't one of the biggest stories this
5. 0:15year really W Street corporate Scandal
6. 0:18greed so where are all the good guys in
7. 0:21this bad news how about Sharon Watkins
8. 0:26remember
9. 0:27her it was a year of SC
10. 0:31a year when sophisticated accounting hid
11. 0:34simple
12. 0:35thievery in fact if you stood outside
13. 0:38America's cour houses you could see some
14. 0:40of the most lavishly paid corporate
15. 0:42Executives in America coming and going
16. 0:45in
17. 0:46handcuffs the numbers were mindboggling
18. 0:49over
19. 0:49175 billion in Pension funds were lost
20. 0:53the stock market lost a third of its
21. 0:55value over $1.6
22. 0:58trillion and then there was the number
23. 1:02nine that's the number of times former
24. 1:05Enron CEO Jeff Skilling told a
25. 1:07congressional hearing I am not an
26. 1:10accountant I am not an accountant I am
27. 1:11not an not an I don't know I'm not an
28. 1:16accountant the most important number
29. 1:18though might be one the one person at
30. 1:21Enron who spoke out Sharon Watkins I am
31. 1:25Sharon Watkins I hold a master's degree
32. 1:27in professional accounting Watkins was a
33. 1:30senior vice president at Enron when she
34. 1:33examined enron's books she found massive
35. 1:36fraud she was afraid at first to speak
36. 1:38out I I did believe it would be a job
37. 1:41terminating move and that wasn't all she
38. 1:44was worried about why would you be
39. 1:46worried about your personal safety
40. 1:48because it was the seventh largest
41. 1:49company in America when CEO Jeff
42. 1:52Skilling resigned she went to the new
43. 1:54CEO Kenneth lay with documents and a
44. 1:57memo but lay did nothing and I was
45. 2:00incredibly frustrated because I do think
46. 2:02Mr lay missed a small window of
47. 2:04opportunity to salvage the company
48. 2:07By ignoring the obvious in the end Enron
49. 2:11was worth almost nothing there were
50. 2:13swindlers in The Emperor's New
51. 2:15Clothes um discussing the fine material
52. 2:19that they were weaving in the Sleek High
53. 2:21powerered corporate world it's hard to
54. 2:23tell what's real but there is another
55. 2:27world in Tomball Texas where Sharon
56. 2:30Watkins led the Thanksgiving Day parade
57. 2:32this year it's easier to tell what's
58. 2:34real and what isn't Sharon grew up here
59. 2:37running the cash register in her uncle's
60. 2:39Supermarket money was not an abstract
61. 2:42concept it's a place where small town
62. 2:45virtues still hold sway in Tomball
63. 2:48people speak their minds businesses give
64. 2:51value for a dollar and the small change
65. 2:54of daily life is old-fashioned decency
66. 2:57nearly everyone in Tomball knows Sharon
67. 2:59Watkins YY Sharon we're proud of
68. 3:03you no one was surprised she spoke out
69. 3:07in a year when it was hard for even
70. 3:09sophisticated investors to know what had
71. 3:12value anymore no one could doubt the
72. 3:15value of
73. 3:23courage