Enron is Back, You Guys

On Monday, the 23rd anniversary of Enron filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Houston Chronicle ran a story about every accounting professor’s favorite cautionary tale making a grand return to the American business ecosystem. Hey, Arthur Andersen is still doing tax work (and by all accounts they’re doing quite well), why not.

Twenty-three years after Enron declared bankruptcy, the infamous Houston-based energy company appears to be making a return.

A group representing itself as Enron, which became the center of a corporate scandal Dec. 2, 2001, following revelations of gross financial misconduct, has recently emerged in the Houston area. The company erected a billboard heralding Enron’s supposed return, took out a full-page ad in Monday’s print edition of the Houston Chronicle and has posted a statement on X promising a new leaf and a bright future for the company.

“Enron Corporation today announced its relaunch as a company dedicated to solving the global energy crisis,” the statement read. “With a bold new vision, Enron will leverage cutting-edge technology, human ingenuity and the spirit of adaptation to address the critical challenges of energy sustainability, accessibility and affordability.”

Reconciliation is a major focus of Enron’s alleged revamp — so much so, the “R” in Enron now stands for “repentant,” according to the company’s newly-launched website.

*checks date* No, it’s not April 1.

Enron.com broke my screenshot extension so this is the best you get:

In case you haven’t gathered by now, this is definitely a joke. They’re really committing to the bit though, having released a (seemingly AI-generated) video and putting up a billboard in Houston.

Digging further into things, the Chronicle discovered US Patents and Trademark Office filings that tie the new Enron with The College Company, “a multi-facet parent company which creates and operates clothing brands in the United States” that purports to have served artists like Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, and Kacey Musgraves.

It appears they bought the iconic E trademark for a dollar back in June. HC conveniently uploaded the filing to Scribd:

Huh, we would have thought this was the brainchild of art collective MSCHF, the group behind the anime waifu dating sim that does your taxes.

I signed up on their Careers page to be informed about “career oppurtunities [sic]” (because Enron couldn’t possibly be worse for my resume than working here, right?) and got this email:

1100 S Ocean Blvd in Palm Beach is Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, just FYI.

It’s unclear what exactly they’re doing here, the site says big news will be dropping on December 10. In the meantime, you can buy some ugly merch at exorbitant prices.

It would be funny if merch is the entire reason behind this considering my Enron t-shirt was like $18 on TeePublic.

Fortune did a story on two former employees’ reactions to this, one of whom thinks it’s a “pretty sick joke” while the other thinks the joke can help to educate people on the actual non-joke that happened almost a quarter of a century ago.

“Enron’s downfall taught us critical lessons about corporate ethics, accountability, and the consequences of unchecked ambition. Enron’s legacy was the employees in the trenches. Leave Enron buried,” said Diana Peters, a 74-year-old who is still working because she “lost everything” after Enron’s collapse. See also this 2002 ABC News story: Enron’s Human Toll, One Year Later.

Sherron Watkins — former Vice President of Corporate Development at the Enron Corporation, one of TIME’s 2002 People of the Year, Arthur Andersen alum, and the one who informed Ken Lay of nonsense happening in the company’s books — feels differently.

[S]he didn’t have a problem with the joke because comedy “usually helps us focus on an uncomfortable historical event that we’d rather ignore.”

“I think we use prior scandals to try to teach new generations what can go wrong with big companies,” said Watkins, who still speaks at colleges and conferences about the Enron scandal.

We’ll let you know what happens on December 10. Probably nothing. Nothing ever happens.