It is a well-established principle of financial accounting that the economic substance of transactions rather than their legal form should be reflected in published accounts. Recent revelations about fraudulent and misleading accounting practices at Enron Corp. and other major US companies have...

This paper traces the development of Enron Corp. from a regulated natural gas distribution company to a worldwide energy trading company to its ultimate demise in bankruptcy in December 2001. The paper examines whether Enron should be viewed as an accounting failure, with investors and creditors...