Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story

This book is the most comprehensive and well balanced chronicle of the fatal flaws that brought down Enron - the media and investor darling of the late 90s which collapsed in a spectacular heap of Congressional hearings and criminal trials in the early 2000s. This most riveting sections of the book are the ones which describe the frenzied, ultra-competitive, personality driven and share price obsessed rivalries between executives in the firm, each one trying to outdo the other and foisting a culture on the company that led to some really bad decisions that had immense long term consequences. It is in these pages that one comes to the realization that Enron's collapse was not orchestrated by a giant conspiracy to embezzle investors, it was the outcome of bad decision after bad decision piling on each other till the company could no longer bear the load. Reward systems were put in place that prized short term deals over long term value and ultimately, that's what killed Enron. The two principal executives pulling Enron in different directions were Jeff Skilling and Rebecca Mark. Skilling's trading and gas business adopted mark-to-market accounting that recognized revenues supposed to accrue over multiple years in one shot - leaving Enron with a bloated topline but very little cash coming in. Rebecca's International group made huge, long term investments in projects which often failed to take off or generated little returns. Too little cash in, too little cash out makes for a combustible combination. The spark was provided by Andrew Fastow, Enron's inept, arrogant and ultimately sleazy CFO who decided that instead of overseeing controls, which was supposed to be his true function, he would engage in creative accounting with off-balance sheet entities and take a cut of the money from both tills. The brazen manner in which he and his lieutenant, Michael Kopper, exploited accounting and legal loopholes and pressurized bankers and internal Enron staff who tried to object makes for sickening reading.Ultimately though, Enron collapsed under the weight of its own 'smartness' - the fancy accounting structures couldn't hide the fundamental fact - too little cash coming in and too much going out. And this is where the title of this book is intriguing - to my mind, 'Conspiracy of Fools' can be interpreted in 2 ways - firstly, it could refer to the shenanigans of Fastow and Kopper, two hopelessly out of depth and incompetent employees who were playing by fire, thought they were too smart to ever get caught, defrauded Enron and its senior leadership and ultimately brought down the company through a combination of stupidity and criminality. The second interpretation is more subtle - Enron has been presented as a malevolent entity where right down from the top, everyone was out from day 1 to screw over investors through effectively a Ponzi scheme - however, as this book shows, Enron was more of your run of the mill corporate mad-house with cocky executives, clashing egos and bad business decisions - the senior executives of the company like Lay and Skilling thought they were in control but very often they simply had no idea how bad things were down the line and were taken for a ride - by Fastow, by their accountants and their lawyers who gave them bad advice. It's hard to imagine Enron as a conspiracy given the 'fools' at the top.Though the author never explicitly makes his views known on the criminality of the people at the top of Enron (except Fastow - who he calls a criminal - and his cronies), his verdict is clear. Based on the evidence presented, it's hard to call Lay and Skilling as criminal - and this brings us to the minutiae of the law - when does bad business judgment become a crime? Lay didn't profit from any of Enron's off-balance sheet dealings, Skilling was itching to come back to Enron during its crisis period (what kind of embezzler wants to rejoin a company on its way down?) - both were indicted but one has to question the justice of a justice system where a corrupt felon like Fastow gets a lesser jail sentence than a Skilling whose only crime was perhaps incompetence.Lastly; though, Lay and Skilling lived their lives in great wealth and even with their tribulations, sympathy should perhaps be reserved for the people, both within and outside Enron, who were punished for their integrity - people in Enron's risk department and accounting who were overlooked for bonuses and promotions because they refused to get 'creative', people like Carl Bass in Arthur Andersen who were harassed for taking a principled stand against brazen accounting frauds, people like the many investment banking researchers who were fired by their banks for scrutinizing Enron's financials fairly and refusing to get on the hail Enron bandwagon. All in all, the Enron story is ultimately a tragedy for many and the author does a fantastic job giving us the full view of the ride down of what at one time was the seventh largest public corporation in the world

"Conspiracy of Fools" is more than a recounting of the missteps, gross negligence, and criminality that lead to Enron's collapse; it's a blueprint for other companies to follow about how NOT to run a company.Eichenwald does a masterful job of explaining the ins and outs of the complicated financial dealings at Enron. The deals Enron made, and the off-books entities that were set up, were so complex most people within the company did not even understand them - and even people intimately involved with setting up the entities did not understand everyone's participation fully, until the end. Eichenwald is able to boil these down so that they can be understood in the context of the story, although I'll confess the intricate workings of some of the sham entities - like the Raptor deals - still escaped me.What became abundantly clear as I read this book is that it was not the complicated partnerships that brought Enron down. The collapse of Enron boils down to two things: the wheelings and dealings of one incredibly corrupt, amoral man who was focused on enriching himself at all costs, and the absolute failure of the company's top executives to keep tabs on the most fundamental financial events of the business. Fastow's self-serving deals brought the company to its knees and hid a lot of malfeasance and stupidity, but I think ultimately what brought Enron down was a basic ignorance of the simplest financial concepts. By not keeping track of cash flow or debt maturity, Enron was basically behaving like a person who keeps using his debit card day after day without ever checking his account balance, but simply gets cash advances on his credit cards when he feels like he may need some more money. Obviously that's not a sound business strategy. Eventually the bills will come due, and if someone doesn't have money to pay those bills, the whole system collapses.The book does have some flaws. I too am highly skeptical that Skilling and Lay were not more closely involved in Fastow's dirty dealings. Lay is portrayed in the book almost like an idiot savant, who was lead blindly down the primrose path by Fastow and his team of miscreants. Skilling surely bears more responsibility than he is given by Eichenwald. Not knowing the ins and outs of Fastow's deals is not an excuse. He was the president of the company and Fastow's boss; he should have known. It was his job to know. Eichenwald portrays Skilling as an emotionally fragile, weepy, indecisive man who foolishly relied on his subordinates to do the right thing. I think the truth is probably markedly different from Eichenwald's portrayal.Nevertheless, what does emerge from this account is that Andrew Fastow is a soulless, greedy criminal, and Michael Kopper is no better. Fastow and his wife Lea were only concerned about positioning themselves among Houston's elite and grabbing as much money as they could with both hands. I am amazed Lea Fastow only got one year in jail, and ten years without parole is not enough for Andy Fastow. I am also repulsed that judges allowed the pair to stagger their sentences so their children would not have to be cared for by relatives; I think their children would be better off in a foster home than being raised by two people who are completely morally bankrupt. In the book Eichenwald recounts a story of a New York official who said (in so many words) that he wanted Lay raped in prison. I have similar feelings about Andy Fastow; anything that happens to him in prison won't be punishment enough, even if he ends up walking out of there with a colostomy bag.This is a great book and definitely worth reading, even if you do not have an understanding of high finance. Now it will be interesting to watch the trials of Lay, Skilling and Causey. I can only hope they get what is coming to them.

In the past year alone I have read 42 recent economic history books, and hundreds over the past 10 years (sad old man you may well be thinking!) relating in the main to Corporate America and without any doubt on my part, conclude that 'Conspiracy Of Fools' by Kurt Eichenwald is the best by a Texas mile. Having already read 3 books on the Enron debacle (Enron - The Rise and Fall by Loren Fox, The Smartest Guys In The Room, by Peter Elkind & Bethany McLean, and 22 Days by Rebecca Smith & John R Emshwiller) all of which were good books, I was hesitant about buying this book as I wasn't sure what else I could add to my insight into the Enron saga. These doubts were soon dispelled as soon as I started to read this book, to the extent that it was so gripping that I could not put the book down and carried it about the house, getting through the 700+ pages in a few days.There are many miscreants in this tale, all of whom primarily through a combination of greed. ego, fear or stupidity contributed to creating a business built on the 'white-sand-foundations' of fraudulent accounting, off-balance sheet skullduggery, illusory 'wonder' businesses, an avalanche of misleading public statements, personal financial gain ahead of corporate fiduciary duty, and downright barefaced mendacity, but three standout of this sorry bunch, viz Ken Lay Chairman, Jeffrey Skilling CEO, and Andy Fastow CFO.Whilst in the early days Ken Lay may have been a shrewd wheeler-dealer, in the last few years of Enron's life transmogrified himself into a back-slapping, fellow-well-met, doler out of exhorbitant amounts of charity money, political contributions, and largesse, and became completely detached from the reality of Enron's kamikaze self-induced plummet into bankruptcy.Skilling was, perhaps the cleverest of the bunch, in fact too clever for his own and Enron's good. Had he channeled his talents into the day-to-day running of the business and making profits from it's core activities, instead of concentrating on encouraging the growth of the company through derivative and structured financial instruments, as well as failing to curb the hyper-excessive spending and consequently irresponsible borrowings, then Enron's demise might well have been avoided.Fastow, was consumed by personal greed, taking advantage of Lay and Skilling's fervent and desperate desire to hide bad assets and 'magic up' illusory profits by creating special off-balance sheet entities, which he was solely entrusted to run thus enabling him to pilfer Enron's funds for his and his family's personal enrichment.Whilst all this was going on many other very senior executives were wandering at large, substantially unchecked making the most appalling business decisions, creating lots of company borrowings and frittering away exenses at an alarming and wholly unwarranted rate. The wonder is that in this environment of greed, stupidity, gross incompetence, fraud and dishonesty, Enron was able to hoodwink banks, investors and the financial media for as long as it did.Kurt Eichenwald's book is a masterpiece in investigative economic journalism. He writes with all the skill of a mega-selling thriller writer like John Grisham, and by serving up the unfolding story in easy to digest bites, gives his readers a fast moving, like being on a white knuckle ride, through the many complexities and twists and turns of the Enron Story. A joy to read, was sorry when it ended.The book title 'Conspiracy Of Fools' says it all.

The Enron story is fascinating. This book takes this subject and makes it easy to understand, but gripping.While it may not be everybody's taste, for me it was a page turner. The author conveys the subject of Enron and the people involved in an unbiased matter, based on facts. The use of dialogue adds to the thrilling nature of the book.It's a great read for anyone interested in the subject, or for someone looking for something a bit different.

A good read.

Amazing story, makes you scratch your head how in hell did they get away with it for so long. The financial crisis of 2008-09 that followed several years later was the same thing only spread over many more businesses (read: banks), and they also got away with it. In capitalism money is power, and nothing the poor peasants can do but keep going to work and pay taxes - same as in feudal times, but now they let us vote in a bandit that's going to rob us for the next 4-5 years.No regulation will stop this this behaviour - people running those businesses are people writing those regulations. Ex - Goldman Sachs employees run Federal Reserve and many government institutions in charge of protecting our financial system. But guess what - only their 'friends' on Wall Street benefit.But, back to the book - good read and an eye-opener. Unfortunately most people won't learn much from it and treat it just like another fiction novel.

I love the details on the personal lives of the characters and the in-depth analysis. Really well done.