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Is Enron really back in business sporting a “bold new vision”? Here’s what to know.
In the long history of financial frauds, Enron ranks near the top of the list, with the once high-flying energy trading company suddenly unraveling in a web of lies and accounting sleight-of-hand. On Monday — the 23rd anniversary of its bankruptcy — the company seemed to announce that it’s back “with a bold new vision.”
The Dec. 2 announcement is sparking questions about whether the site is satire, as well as the identity of the people behind the apparent relaunch. The new Enron website includes the kind of blandly uplifting videos often favored by corporate PR departments, such as a ballerina at the beach and a rocket launch, with a voice over talking about “rebirth” and accepting change.
“I am Enron,” several people of various ages and races say at the end of the video.
The company also took out a billboard in Houston, the former hometown of Enron, according to a video posted on X by CBS affiliate KHOU reporter Victor Jacobo. The billboard features the Enron logo, along with the phrase, “We’re back. Can we talk?
The giveaway: The site’s terms and conditions underscore that the “new” Enron is satire. “The information on the website about Enron is First Amendment protected parody, represents performance art, and is for entertainment purposes only,” it states.
So who exactly is behind the stunt? A spokesman for the company didn’t disclose the identities of the people or business behind the announcement, but promised that the new “Enron” will “have more to share soon.”
“Right now we have no additional comment beyond the press release,” he said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch.
The news release cites several goals, in often jargon-filled terms, for the relaunched Enron, including “permissionless innovation” and “solving the energy crisis.”
“Enron will focus on scalable, sustainable solutions, including investments in renewable energy infrastructure, cutting-edge energy storage and advanced power distribution systems,” the statement says.
So what happened to the real Enron?
Enron filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 2, 2001, amid revelations of hidden debt, inflated profits and accounting fraud. The collapse of the energy giant cost thousands of workers their jobs, while millions of investors saw their shares become worthless.
Dozens of executives were charged, including former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, who was sentenced to a 24-year prison term and fined $45 million in 2006 after being found guilty of 18 counts of fraud and conspiracy and one count of insider trading. Skilling was released from prison in 2018.
Enron founder and Chairman Kenneth Lay was also convicted, but he died of a heart attack weeks later, while former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andy Fastow was released after about five years in prison.
Who owns the Enron name now?
The Enron trademark was bought in 2020 for $275 by The College Company, according to a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office document. The file says the company sells t-shirts and Polo shirts, and includes an image of t-shirt with the Enron logo along with the phrase “Summer Internship 1997.”
The College Company is run by Connor Gaydos, whose LinkedIn account now identifies him as the CEO of Enron. Gaydos is also known for creating the “birds aren’t real” satirical conspiracy theory with Peter McIndoe, which pokes fun at odd theories that now proliferate around the internet. The “birds aren’t real” conspiracy theory posits that the U.S. government replaced real birds with drones.
The X account for Enron tweeted on Monday, “We’re back. Can we talk?”
At the end of its tweet thread, it added, “This is the final tweet in this thread. Any impersonators of Enron below this are a scam. Don’t click on any links. Stay safe.”
President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he intends to nominate cryptocurrency advocate Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a “proven leader for common sense regulations.” In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation.
“He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government’s crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would be stepping down from his post on the day that Trump is inaugurated — Jan. 20, 2025.
Trump, once a crypto skeptic, had pledged to make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin. Money has poured into crypto assets since he won. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, is now above $95,000. And shares in crypto platform Coinbase have surged more than 70% since the election.
Paul Grewal, chief legal officer of Coinbase, congratulated Atkins in a post on X.
“We appreciate his commitment to balance in regulating U.S. securities markets and look forward to his fresh leadership at (the SEC),” Grewal wrote. “It’s sorely needed and cannot come a day too soon.”
Congressman Brad Sherman, a California Democrat and a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, said he worries Atkins would not sufficiently regulate cryptocurrencies as SEC chair.
“He’d probably take the position that no cryptocurrency is a security, and hence no exchange that deals with crypto is a securities exchange,” Sherman said. “The opportunity to defraud investors would be there in a very significant way.”
Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history working in the financial markets sector, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt.
His work as an SEC commissioner started in 2002, a time when the fallout from corporate scandals at Enron and WorldCom had turned up the heat on Wall Street and its government regulators.
Atkins was widely considered the most conservative member of the SEC during his tenure at the agency and was known to have a strong free-market bent. As a commissioner, he called for greater transparency in and analysis of the costs and benefits of new SEC rules.
He also emphasized investor education and increased enforcement efforts against those who steal from investors over the internet, manipulate markets, engage in Ponzi schemes and other types of fraud.
At the same time, Atkins objected to stiff penalties imposed on companies accused of fraudulent conduct, contending that they did not deter crime. He caused a stir in the summer of 2006 when he said the practice of granting stock options to executives before the disclosure of news that was certain to increase the share price did not constitute insider trading.
U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Atkins has the experience needed to “restore faith in the SEC.”
“I’m confident his leadership will lead to clarity for the digital asset ecosystem and ensure U.S. capital markets remain the envy of the world,” McHenry posted on X.
Atkins already has some experience working for Trump. During Trump’s first term, Atkins was a member of the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum, an advisory group of more than a dozen CEOs and business leaders who offered input on how to create jobs and speed economic growth.
In 2017, Atkins joined the Token Alliance, a cryptocurrency advocacy organization.
Crypto industry players welcomed Trump’s victory in the hopes that he would push through legislative and regulatory changes that they’ve long lobbied for.
Trump himself has launched World Liberty Financial, a new venture with family members to trade cryptocurrencies.
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