Enron Files for Bankruptcy

Date: December 2, 2001 • Location: Washington, United States

Less than two months after disclosing accounting violations, the Texas-based energy firm Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, evaporating nearly $11 billion in shareholder wealth.

The Enron scandal was an accounting scandal sparked by American energy company Enron Corporation filing for bankruptcy after news of widespread internal fraud became public in October 2001, which led to the dissolution of its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, previously one of the five largest in the world. The largest bankruptcy reorganization in U.S. history at that time, Enron was cited as the biggest audit failure.