In 2000, Enron's reported revenue was $101 billion, making it the seventh-largest company in the United States by that measure. Its stock price had peaked near $90 the year before. Within twelve months the company filed for what was then the largest bankruptcy in American history, wiping out $74 billion in shareholder value, and the executives who signed the financial statements went to prison.

The fraud was not hidden in some obscure derivative structure that only quants could read. It was visible — to anyone who actually read the three financial statements together rather than looking at just one number in isolation. The cash flow statement showed that Enron's reported profits never converted to actual operating cash; the balance sheet showed off-balance-sheet entities with names like LJM and Raptor that concealed liabilities; the income statement showed revenue that existed only because the company was trading with its own subsidiaries.