Jay Inslee Quotes

Was I believer in Enron Corporation? Yes, sir, I was.

When Enron collapsed, through court processes, thousands and thousands of emails came out that were internal, and it provided a window into how the whole company was managed. It was all the little decisions that supported the flagrant violations.

I agree that there are some bad apples on Wall Street. I spent about ten years exposing corporate and financial fraud for 'Barron's' magazine and I found a lot to write about.

Before Enron, I think people were a bit more naive about the way things worked, and I think Enron pulled the curtain back on unsavoury practices that turned out to be a lot more widespread.

I've never commented much about my experience at Enron except to say, when I was there, it was a much more pipeline and asset-oriented company.

Buying only what you know can end in disaster. Just think about Enron's employees and business partners, the 'locals' who bought lots of its stock because they thought they were in the know.

Enron had already collapsed and filed for bankruptcy protection by the beginning of 2002. But despite complaints from short sellers that corporations had used accounting gimmickry to inflate their profits, many investors thought the crisis at Enron was an isolated case.

At the height of the Enron mania, the company's market value was $65 billion. Once the dust cleared, the final value was $0.

Ken Lay, the disgraced former chairman of Enron, found a way to escape his legal problems: He died after being convicted of fraud and conspiracy charges.

What Enron was doing, what caused investors to embrace it in a rapture of baffled awe, was hiding debt.

I don't think anyone would argue with the notion that there have been serious abuses on Wall Street.

What transpired at Semgroup was no less than a $500 billion fraud on the people of the world.

But if you look at WorldCom, which is the biggest failure to date, they grew dramatically, they were buying companies that were bigger than they were and they were doing it off inflated stock.

The stock market is a racket. Those guys are crooks.

From coast to coast, the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission have ensnared people not only at hedge funds, but at technology and pharmaceutical companies, consulting and law firms, government agencies, and even a major stock exchange.

In the movie 'Wall Street' I play Gordon Gekko, a greedy corporate executive who cheated to profit while innocent investors lost their savings. The movie was fiction, but the problem is real.

Research suggests that investment bankers are more prone to commit fraud when they feel the competitor at their heels.

Things that have happened with Enron and companies like that, where they've squandered their employees' pension funds, I think it has brought a new level of anxiety. People don't feel like they can trust their employer.

Get inside information from the president and you will probably lose half your money. If you get it from the chairman of the board, you will lose all of your money.

It's mostly the financial chicanery that's going on. People are saying 'What kind of trust can we put in this market?'

I take full responsibility for what happened at Enron. But saying that, I know in my mind that I did nothing criminal.

The collapse of Enron was devastating to tens of thousands of people and shook the public's confidence in corporate America.

Wall Street is broken for sure because it succumbed to greed and corruption and pure speculation with no values.

But the most important thing is, Enron did not cause the California crisis.

If you look at the great frauds of all time, Enron had that phantom trading floor. What Herbalife has is it has phantom or fictitious customers.