Understanding how disasters happened in the past, can help investors avoid them in the future. With that in mind, we'll look at some of the all-time greatest cases of companies betraying their investors. Some of these cases are truly amazing; try to look at them from a shareholder's standpoint. Unfortunately, these shareholders had no way of knowing what was really happening, as they were being tricked into investing.
Enron Formed after MergerEnron was formed in 1985 following a merger between Houston Natural Gas and Omaha-based InterNorth. Kenneth Lay, who had been the chief executive officer (CEO) of Houston Natural Gas, became Enron's CEO and chairman, and quickly rebranded Enron into an energy trader and supplier. Deregulation of the energy markets allowed companies to place bets on future prices, and Enron was poised to take advantage.
