How “black and white” was the Enron case?
Harvey Silverglate: Given the vague nature of so many securities and financial reporting statutes and regulations, it was alarmingly easy for federal prosecutors to twist some lawful corporate action into a federal crime. The heart and soul of the federal assault on Enron—that it was operated as a fraud by virtue of the non-reporting, to the investing public, of the true financial condition of the enterprise—was, in fact, the true fraud on the public. You would have thought that the financial reporting press, in particular, would have picked apart the federal charges against Enron and its top echelon officers. Instead, the Fourth Estate became the feds’ cheering gallery. Someday I think a new history will be written of the Enron affair, and I suspect that many reputations will be resurrected, and many others destroyed. While I think that Enron was probably an atrociously run company, I have trouble seeing the real criminality of many of the indictments brought. BC: What impact has the
