Question 1

True or false: Enron's business model was primarily based on physical oil and gas drilling operations.

Accepted Answer

False. Enron was an energy trader and marketer, not a driller; its assets were mostly pipelines and trading contracts.

Question 2

True or false: The 'Enron scandal' led to the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002.

Accepted Answer

True. Congress passed Sarbanes-Oxley to increase corporate accountability and prevent accounting fraud after Enron.

Question 3

True or false: Enron's CEO Ken Lay died of a heart attack before serving any prison time for his crimes.

Accepted Answer

True. Lay was convicted in 2006 but died of a heart attack in July 2006 before sentencing.

Question 4

True or false: Enron's stock price collapsed overnight from $90 to nearly zero in a single day.

Accepted Answer

False. The collapse took months; stock dropped from $90 in mid-2000 to under $1 by late 2001, not overnight.

Question 5

True or false: Enron's bankruptcy was the largest in U.S. history at the time, but has since been surpassed.

Accepted Answer

True. Enron's 2001 bankruptcy was record-breaking then, but later eclipsed by Lehman Brothers and others.

Question 6

True or false: The Enron scandal was first exposed by a junior accountant who noticed irregularities in a single spreadsheet.

Accepted Answer

False. It was whistleblower Sherron Watkins, an Enron vice president, who warned Ken Lay in a memo, not a junior accountant.

Question 7

True or false: Enron's trading floor used a secret code word 'Death Star' for a fraudulent scheme to manipulate California's energy market.

Accepted Answer

True. Enron traders used 'Death Star' and other code names for schemes that artificially created energy shortages.

Question 8

True or false: Enron's accounting firm Arthur Andersen was also convicted and went out of business entirely.

Accepted Answer

False. Andersen was convicted of obstruction of justice, but the conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court in 2005.

Enron scandal Trivia Questions