Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 20,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion in 2000.^[1] Fortune named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years. At the end of 2001, it was revealed that its reported financial condition was sustained substantially by institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud, known as the "Enron scandal". Enron has since become a popular symbol of willful corporate fraud and corruption. The scandal also brought into question the accounting practices and activities of many corporations throughout the United States and was a factor in the creation of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002. The scandal also affected the wider business world by causing the dissolution of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm.^[2]

Enron filed for bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York in late 2001 and selected Weil, Gotshal & Manges as its bankruptcy counsel. It emerged from bankruptcy in November 2004, pursuant to a court-approved plan of reorganization, after one of the biggest and most complex bankruptcy cases in U.S. history. A new board of directors changed the name of Enron to Enron Creditors Recovery Corp., and focused on reorganizing and liquidating certain operations and assets of the pre-bankruptcy Enron.^[3] On September 7, 2006, Enron sold Prisma Energy International Inc., its last remaining business, to Ashmore Energy International Ltd. (now AEI).^[4]

Early history[link]

Enron Complex in Downtown Houston

Enron traces its roots to the Northern Natural Gas Company, which was formed in 1932, in Omaha, Nebraska. It was reorganized in 1979 as the leading subsidiary of a holding company, InterNorth which was a highly diversified energy and energy related products company. Internorth was a leader in natural gas production, transmission and marketing as well as natural gas liquids and an innovator in the plastics industry. It owned Peak Antifreeze and developed EVAL resins for food packaging. In 1985, it bought the smaller and less diversified Houston Natural Gas.^[5]

The separate company initially named itself "HNG/InterNorth Inc.", even though InterNorth was the nominal survivor. It built a large and lavish headquarters complex with pink marble in Omaha (dubbed locally as the "Pink Palace"), that was later sold to Physicians Mutual. However, the departure of ex-InterNorth and first CEO of Enron Corp Samuel Segnar six months after the merger allowed former HNG CEO Kenneth Lay to become the next CEO of the newly merged company. Lay soon moved the company's headquarters to Houston after swearing to keep it in Omaha and began to thoroughly re-brand the business. Lay and his secretary, Nancy McNeil, originally selected the name "Enteron" (possibly spelled in camelcase as "EnterOn"), but, when it was pointed out that the term approximated a Greek word referring to the intestines, it was quickly shortened to "Enron". The final name was decided upon only after business cards, stationery, and other items had been printed reading Enteron. Enron's "crooked E" logo was designed in the mid-1990s by the late American graphic designer Paul Rand. Rand's original design included one of the elements of the E in yellow which disappeared when copied or faxed. This was quickly replaced by a green element. Almost immediately after the move to Houston, Enron began selling off key assets such as Northern PetroChemicals and took on silent partners in Enron CoGeneration, Northern Border Pipeline and Transwestern Pipeline and became a less diversified company. Early financial analysts said Enron was swimming in debt and the sale of key operations would not solve the problems.

Misleading financial accounts[link]

In 1990, Enron Finance CEO Jeff Skilling hired Andrew Fastow, who was well acquainted with the burgeoning deregulated energy market Skilling wanted to exploit. In 1993, Fastow set to work establishing numerous limited liability special purpose entities (common business practice); however, it also allowed Enron to place liability so that it would not appear in its accounts, allowing it to maintain a robust and generally growing stock price and thus keeping its critical investment grade credit ratings.

Enron was originally involved in transmitting and distributing electricity and natural gas throughout the United States. The company developed, built, and operated power plants and pipelines while dealing with rules of law and other infrastructures worldwide. Enron owned a large network of natural gas pipelines, which stretched ocean to ocean and border to border including Northern Natural Gas, Florida Gas Transmission, Transwestern Pipeline company and a partnership in Northern Border Pipeline from Canada. The states of California, New Hampshire and Rhode Island had already passed power deregulation laws by July 1996, the time of Enron's proposal to acquire Portland General Electric.^[6] In 1998, Enron moved into the water sector, creating the Azurix Corporation, which it part-floated on the New York Stock Exchange in June 1999. Azurix failed to break into the water utility market, and one of its major concessions, in Buenos Aires, was a large-scale money-loser. After the move to Houston, many analysts^[who?] criticized the Enron management as swimming in debt. The Enron management pursued aggressive retribution against its critics, setting the pattern for dealing with accountants, lawyers, and the financial media.

Enron grew wealthy due largely to marketing, promoting power, and its high stock price. Enron was named "America's Most Innovative Company" by Fortune for six consecutive years, from 1996 to 2001. It was on the Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" list in 2000, and had offices that were stunning in their opulence. Enron was hailed by many, including labor and the workforce, as an overall great company, praised for its large long-term pensions, benefits for its workers and extremely effective management until its exposure in corporate fraud. The first analyst to publicly disclose Enron's financial flaws was Daniel Scotto, who in August 2001 issued a report entitled "All Stressed-up… And No Place To Go", which encouraged investors to sell Enron stocks and bonds at any and all costs.

As was later discovered, many of Enron's recorded assets and profits were inflated or even wholly fraudulent and nonexistent. One example of fraudulent records was in 1999 when Enron promised to pay back Merrill Lynch & Co investment with interest in order to show profit on its books. Debts and losses were put into entities formed "offshore" that were not included in the firm's financial statements, and other sophisticated and arcane financial transactions between Enron and related companies were used to take unprofitable entities off the company's books.

Its most valuable asset and the largest source of honest income, the 1930s-era Northern Natural Gas, was eventually purchased back by a group of Omaha investors, who moved its headquarters back to Omaha, and is now a unit of Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings Corp. NNG was put up as collateral for a $2.5 billion capital infusion by Dynegy Corporation when Dynegy was planning to buy Enron. When Dynegy looked closely at Enron's books, they backed out of the deal and fired their CEO, Chuck Watson. The new chairman and head CEO, the late Daniel Dienstbier, had been president of NNG and an Enron executive at one time and was forced out of Enron by Ken Lay. Dienstbier was an acquaintance of Warren Buffett. NNG continues to be profitable today.

Former management and corporate governance[link]

Central Management

• Kenneth Lay: Chairman, and Chief executive officer
• Jeffrey Skilling: President, Chief operating officer, and CEO (February–August 2001)
• Andrew Fastow: Chief financial officer
• Rick Causey: Chief accounting officer
• Rebecca Mark-Jusbasche: CEO of Enron International and Azurix
• Lou Pai: CEO of Enron Energy Services
• Forrest Hoglund: CEO of Enron Oil and Gas
• Richard Gallagher: Head of Enron Wholesale Global International Group
• Kenneth "Ken" Rice: CEO of Enron Wholesale and Enron Broadband Services
• J. Clifford Baxter: CEO of Enron North America
• Sherron Watkins: Head of Enron Global Finance
• Jim Derrick: Enron General Counsel
• Mark Koenig: Head of Enron Investor Relations
• Joan Foley: Head of Enron Human Resources
• Greg Whally: President and COO of Enron (August 2001– Bankruptcy)
• Jeff McMahon: CFO of Enron (October 2001-Bankruptcy)

Board of Directors

• Robert A. Belfer: Chairman, Belco Oil and Gas Corp
• Norman P. Blake Jr.: Chairman, President and CEO, Comdisco, Inc.
• Ronnie C. Chan: Chairman, Hang Lung Group
• John H. Duncan: Former Chairman of The Executive Gulf and Western Industries Inc.
• Wendy L. Gramm: Former Chairman of US Commodity Futures Trading Commission
• Ken L. Harrison: Former Chairman and CEO of Portland General Electric
• Robert K. Jaedicke: Professor Emeritus of Accounting at Stanford University
• Charles A. LeMaistre: President Emeritus, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
• John Mendelsohn: President, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
• Jerome J. Meyer: Chairman, Tektronix
• Paulo V. Ferraz Pereira: Executive Vice President if Group Bozano
• Frank Savage: Chairman: Alliance Capital Management
• John A. Urquhart: Senior Advisor to the Chairman of Enron
• John Wakeham: Former U.K. Secretary of state for Energy
• Herbert S. Winokur Jr.: President of Winokur Holdings Inc.

Products[link]

Enron traded in more than 30 different products, including the following:

• Products traded on EnronOnline
  • Petrochemicals
  • Plastics
  • Power
  • Pulp and paper
  • Steel
  • Weather Risk Management

• Oil and LNG transportation
• Broadband
• Principal investments
• Risk management for commodities
• Shipping / freight
• Streaming media
• Water and wastewater

It was also an extensive futures trader, including sugar, coffee, grains, hog, and other meat futures. At the time of its bankruptcy filing in December 2001, Enron structured into seven distinct business units.

Online marketplace services[link]

• EnronOnline (commodity trading platform)
• ClickPaper (transaction platform for pulp, paper, and wood products)
• EnronCredit (the first global online credit department to provide live credit prices and enable business-to-business customers to hedge credit exposure instantly via the Internet.)
• ePowerOnline (customer interface for Enron Broadband Services)
• Enron Direct (sales of fixed-price contracts for gas and electricity; Europe only)
• EnergyDesk (energy-related derivatives trading; Europe only)
• NewPowerCompany (online energy trading, joint venture with IBM and AOL)
• Enron Weather (weather derivatives)
• DealBench (online business services)
• Water2Water (water storage, supply, and quality credits trading)
• HotTap (customer interface for Enron's U.S. gas pipeline businesses)
• Enromarkt (business to business pricing and information platform; Germany only)

Broadband services[link]

• Enron Intelligent Network (broadband content delivery)
• Enron Media Services (risk management services for media content companies)
• Customizable Bandwidth Solutions (bandwidth and fiber products trading)
• Streaming Media Applications (live or on-demand Internet broadcasting applications)

Energy and commodities services[link]

• Enron Power (electricity wholesaling)
• Enron Natural Gas (natural gas wholesaling)
• Enron Clean Fuels (biofuel wholesaling)
• Enron Pulp and Paper, Packaging, and Lumber (risk management derivatives for forest products industry)
• Enron Coal and Emissions (coal wholesaling and CO2 offsets trading)
• Enron Plastics and Petrochemicals (price risk management for polymers, olefins, methanol, aromatics, and natural gas liquids)
• Enron Weather Risk Management (Weather Derivatives)
• Enron Steel (financial swap contracts and spot pricing for the steel industry)
• Enron Crude Oil and Oil Products (petroleum hedging)
• Enron Wind Power Services (wind turbine manufacturing and wind farm operation)
• MG Plc. (U.K. metals merchant)
• Enron Energy Services (Selling services to industrial end users)
• Enron International (operation of all overseas assets)

Capital and risk management services[link]

Commercial and industrial outsourcing services[link]

• Commodity Management
• Energy Asset Management
• Energy Information Managementbb
• Facility Management
• Capital Management
• Azurix Inc. (water utilities and infrastructure)

Project development and management services[link]

• Energy Infrastructure Development (developing, financing, and operation of power plants and related projects)
• Enron Global Exploration & Production Inc. (oil and natural gas field services)
• Elektro Electricidade e Servicos SA (Brazilian electric utility)

Energy transportation and upstream services[link]

• Natural Gas Transportation
• Northern Border Pipeline
• Houston Pipeline
• Transwestern Pipeline
• Florida Gas Transmission
• Northern Natural Gas Company
• Natural Gas Storage
• Compression Services
• Gas Processing and Treatment
• Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Services
• EOTT Energy Inc. (oil transportation)

Enron manufactured gas valves, circuit breakers, thermostats, and electrical equipment in Venezuela through INSELA SA, a 50–50 joint venture with General Electric. Enron owned three paper and pulp products companies: Garden State Paper, a newsprint mill; as well as Papiers Stadacona and St. Aurelie Timberlands. Enron held a controlling stake in the Louisiana-based petroleum exploration and production company Mariner Energy.

Enron International[link]

Enron International (EI) was Enron's wholesale asset development and asset management business. Its primary focus was developing and building natural gas power plants outside North America. Enron Engineering and Construction Company (EECC) was a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron International, and built almost all of Enron International's power plants. Unlike other business units of Enron, Enron International had a strong cash flow on bankruptcy filing.^{[citation needed]} Enron International consisted of all of Enron's foreign power projects, including ones in Europe.

Leadership[link]

Rebecca Mark was the CEO of Enron International until she moved over to lead Enron's newly acquired water business, Azurix, in 1997. Mark played a major role in the development of the Dabhol project in India, Enron's largest international endeavor.^{[citation needed]}

Projects[link]

Enron International constructed power plants and pipelines across the globe. Some today are still up and running, including the massive Teeside plant in England. Others, like a barge mounted plant off Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, cost Enron money through law suits and investment losses.^{[citation needed]} Puerto Plata was a barge mounted power plant next to the hotel Hotelero del Atlantico. When the plant was fired up, winds blew soot from the plant onto the hotel guests' meals, blackening their food. The winds also blew garbage from nearby slums into the plant's water-intake system. For some time the only solution was to hire men who would row out and push the garbage away with their paddles.^{[citation needed]} Through mid-2000 the company collected a paltry $3.5 million from a $95 million investment.^{[citation needed]} Enron also had other investment projects in Europe, South America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Jamaica, Venezuela, and across the Caribbean.^{[citation needed]}

India[link]

Around 1992 India came to the United States to find energy investors to help with India's energy shortage problems.^{[citation needed]} In December 1993, Enron inked a 20-year power-purchase contract with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board.^{[citation needed]} The contract allowed Enron to construct a massive 2,015 megawatt power plant. Construction would be completed in two phases, and Enron would form the Dabhol Power Company to help manage the plant. The power project was the first step in a $20 billion scheme to help rebuild and stabilize India's power grid. Enron, GE (who was selling turbines to the project), and Bechtel (who was actually constructing the plant), each put up 10% equity.^{[citation needed]}

In 1996, when India's Congress Party was no longer in power, the Indian government assessed the project as being excessively expensive and refused to pay for the plant and stopped construction.^{[citation needed]} The Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB), the local state run utility, was required by contract to continue to pay Enron plant maintenance charges, even if no power was purchased from the plant. The MSEB determined that it could not afford to purchase the power (at Rs. 8 per unit kWh) charged by Enron. The plant operator was unable to find alternate customers for Dabhol power due to the absence of an open free market in the regulated structure of utilities in India.^{[citation needed]} From 1996 until Enron's bankruptcy in 2001 the company tried to revive the project and spark interest in India's need for the power plant without success.

The Panna-Mukta oil field and the Tapti gas field to the north were discovered by the Indian state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), who initially operated the fields.^[7] Following a privatization policy a Reliance - Enron consortium gained a 25-year lease on the oil field in February 1994. Oil production at that time was 12,000 barrels per day.^[8] The lease was awarded under a production sharing arrangement. The Government of India would receive a variable share of profit depending on the investment multiple. In December 1994 a joint venture between ONGC (40%), Enron (30%) and Reliance (30%) took control of the field.^[7] In 2002 British Gas (BG) bought Enron's 30% share of the Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields for $350 million.^[9]

Project Summer[link]

During the summer of 2001, Enron made an attempt to sell a number of Enron International's assets, many of which were not sold. It is still unclear why Enron wanted to sell these assets. Most^[who?] suspect it was because Enron was in need of cash.^[10]

EnronOnline[link]

In November 1999, Enron launched EnronOnline. Conceptualized by the company's European Gas Trading team under John Siepierski, it was the first web-based transaction system that allowed buyers and sellers to buy, sell, and trade commodity products globally. It allowed users to do business only with Enron. At its peak, over $6bn worth of commodities were transacted through EnronOnline every day.

EnronOnline went live on November 29, 1999. The site allowed Enron to transact with participants in the global energy markets. The main commodities offered on EnronOnline were natural gas and electricity, although there were 500 other products including credit derivatives, bankruptcy swaps, pulp, gas, plastics, paper, steel, metals, freight, and TV commercial time.

EnronOnline was sold to UBS as part of the sale of the North American Natural Gas and Power trading group to UBS AG.

Principal assets[link]

At the time of bankruptcy, Enron owned interests in the following major assets:

Power plants[link]

Enron owned or operated 38 electric power plants worldwide:

• Teesside (United Kingdom)—at the time of commission in 1992, at 1750 MW, was the largest Natural Gas Co-Gen plant in the world. Its on-time and under-budget completion put Enron Power on the map as an international developer, owner and operator.
• Bahia Las Minas (Panama)—largest thermal power plant in Central America, 355 MW
• Puerto Quetzal Power Project (Guatemala)—110 MW
• PQP LLC (Guatemala)—holding company for 124 MW Power Barge named "Esperanza"
• Empresa Energetica Corinto (Nicaragua)—holding company for "Margarita II" 70.5 MW power barge, Enron held 35% share
• EcoElectrica (Puerto Rico, USA)—507 MW natural gas cogeneration plant, with adjacent LNG import terminal- supplied 20% of island's electricity
• Puerto Plata Power Project (Dominican Republic)—185 MW power barge named "Puerto Plata"
• Modesto Maranzana Power Plant (Argentina)—70 MW
• Cuiaba Integrated Project (Brazil)—480 MW combined cycle power plant
• Nowa Sarzyna Power Plant (Poland)—116 MW, first privately developed post-Communist electricity project in Poland
• Sarlux Power Project (Italy)—551 MW combined cycle power plant, converted residue from Italy's largest oil refinery into synthetic gas for fuel
• Trakya Power Project (Turkey)—478 MW
• Chengdu Cogen Project (China)—284 MW, joint venture with Sichuan Electric Company
• Northern Marianas Power Project (Guam, USA)—80 MW slow speed diesel oil plant
• Batangas Power Project (Philippines)—110 MW
• Subic Bay Power Project (Philippines)—116 MW
• Dabhol Power Project (India)—2,184 MW combined cycle plant, generally considered one of Enron's most controversial and least successful projects
• Storm Lake Wind Generation Project (Iowa, USA)—193 MW wind farm
• Lake Benton II Wind Generation Facility (Minnesota, USA)—104 MW wind farm
• Lake Benton I Wind Generation Facility (Minnesota, USA)—107 MW wind farm
• Cabazon Wind Generation Facility (California, USA)—40 MW wind farm
• Green Power I Wind Generation Facility (California, USA)—16.5 MW wind farm
• Indian Mesa I Wind Generation Facility (Texas, USA)—25.5 MW wind farm
• Clear Sky Wind Power Generation Facility (Texas, USA)—135 MW wind farm
• Mill Run Wind Wind Power Generation Facility (Pennsylvania, USA)—15 MW wind farm
• Trent Mesa Wind Generation Facility (Texas, USA)—150 MW wind farm
• Montfort Wind Generation Facility (Wisconsin, USA)—30 MW wind farm
• 8 hydroelectric plants in Oregon with a combined capacity of 509 MW, owned through Portland General Electric
• 4 additional thermal plants in Oregon and Montana with a combined capacity of 1,464 MW, owned through Portland General Electric

Pipelines[link]

• Centragas (Colombia)—357 miles, natural gas
• Promigas (Colombia)
• Transportadora de Gas del Sur (Argentina)—largest pipeline system in South America, 5,005 km
• CEG (Brazil)—1,368 miles, natural gas
• CEGRio (Brazil)
• Transredes (Bolivia)—3,000 km natural gas pipeline and 2,500 km oil & liquids pipeline
• Bolivia-to-Brazil Pipeline (Bolivia/Brazil)—3,000 km, natural gas
• Northern Natural Gas (Upper Midwestern USA)—16,500 miles, included share in Trailblazer Pipeline
• Transwestern Pipeline (Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado)—2,554 miles
• Florida Gas Transmission (Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida)—4,800 miles
• Northern Border Pipeline (Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana )—1,249 miles

Electric utilities/distributors[link]

• Portland General Electric Company (USA)—serving 775,000 customers in Oregon
• Elektro Electricidade e Servicos S.A. (Brazil)—1.5 million customers
• Compania Anonima Luz y Fuerza Electricas de Puerto Cabello (Venezuela)—50,000 customers

Natural gas-related businesses[link]

• ProCaribe (Puerto Rico, USA)—LPG storage terminal, only fully refrigerated LPG storage facility in Caribbean
• San Juan Gas Company (Puerto Rico, USA)—gas distribution, 400 industrial/commercial customers
• Industrial Gases Ltd. (Jamaica)—8 filling plants, industrial gas manufacturing & LPG distribution, held 100% monopoly on Jamaican industrial gas business and 40% of LPG business
• Gaspart (Brazil)—consortium of 7 gas distribution companies
• Vengas (Venezuela)—LPG transportation and distribution
• ACCRO III and IV Project(Venezuela) is the largest outsourcing contract offered by PDVSA. Enron's partners in the venture were Accro Barbados Ltd., a subsidiary of TransCanada Pipelines Ltd., and private Venezuelan company Tecnoconsult. The project included two extraction plants, each with 400 MM cubic feet per day capacity, a fractionation plant to remove the liquids and other related infrastructure
• SK-Enron Company Ltd. (South Korea)—joint venture with SK Corporation; included 8 city gas utilities, an LPG distributor, and a steam and electricity cogeneration facility

Pulp and paper[link]

• Garden State Paper Company Inc. (New Jersey, USA)—paperboard and newsprint recycling mill
• Papiers Stadacona Ltee. (Quebec, Canada)—wood pulp & paper mill
• St. Aurelie Timberlands Company Ltd. (Quebec, and New Brunswick, Canada & Maine, USA)—timber company

Other[link]

• Mariner Energy Inc. (Houston, Texas, USA)—oil & gas exploration, development, and production with operations in the Gulf of Mexico
• Interruptores Especializados Lara (Venezuela)—manufacturer of valves, thermostats, and electrical breakers for appliances
• Enron Wind (formerly Zond) – manufacturer of wind power turbines and related systems, with factories in USA, Spain, Portugal, and Germany. Purchased by General Electric in 2002.^[11]

Enron Prize for Distinguished Public Service[link]

In the mid-1990s, Enron established an endowment for the Enron Prize for Distinguished Public Service, awarded by Rice University's Baker Institute to "recognize outstanding individuals for their contributions to public service". Recipients were:

• 1995: Colin Powell^[12]
• 1997: Mikhail Gorbachev^[12]
• 1999 (early): Eduard Shevardnadze^[12]
• 1999 (late): Nelson Mandela^[13]
• 2001: Alan Greenspan^[14]

Greenspan, because of his position as the Fed chairman, was not at liberty to accept the $10,000 honorarium, the $15,000 sculpture, nor the crystal trophy, but only accepted the "honor" of being named an Enron Prize recipient.^[15] The situation was further complicated because a few days earlier, Enron had filed paperwork admitting it had fudged financial statements for five years.^[16] Greenspan did not mention Enron a single time during his speech.^[17] At the ceremony, Ken Lay indicated his beliefs about the future of the award when he stated, "I'm looking forward to our first woman recipient."^[18] The next morning, it was reported in The Houston Chronicle that no decision had been made on whether the name of the prize would be changed.^[19] 19 days after the prize was awarded to Greenspan, Enron declared bankruptcy.^[20]

In early 2002, Enron was awarded Harvard's (in)famous IgNobel Prize for 'Most Creative Use of Imaginary Numbers.' The various former members of Enron management all declined to accept the award in person, although no reason was given at the time.

2001 Accounting scandal[link]

In 2001, after a series of revelations involving irregular accounting procedures bordering on fraud perpetrated throughout the 1990s involving Enron and its accounting firm Arthur Andersen, along with the September 11 attacks, Enron suffered the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy in history (since surpassed by those of Worldcom in 2002 and Lehman Brothers in 2008).

As the scandal unraveled, Enron shares dropped from over US $90.00 in the summer of 2000 to just pennies.^{[citation needed]} Enron had been considered a blue chip stock, so this was an unprecedented event in the financial world. Enron's plunge occurred after the revelation that much of its profits and revenue were the result of deals with special purpose entities (limited partnerships which it controlled). This meant that many of Enron's debts and the losses that it suffered were not reported in its financial statements.^{[citation needed]}

A white knight rescue attempt by a similar, smaller energy company, Dynegy, collapsed in late November due to concerns over an unexpected restatement of earnings.^{[citation needed]} Enron filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001. In addition, the scandal caused the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which at the time was one of the world's top accounting firms. The firm was found guilty of obstruction of justice in 2002 for destroying documents related to the Enron audit.^{[citation needed]} Since the SEC is not allowed to accept audits from convicted felons, Andersen was forced to stop auditing public companies. Although the conviction was thrown out in 2005 by the Supreme Court, the damage to the Andersen name has prevented it from returning as a viable business even on a limited scale.

Enron also withdrew a naming rights deal with the Houston Astros Major League Baseball club to have its name associated with their new stadium, which was formerly known as Enron Field (now Minute Maid Park).^{[citation needed]}

Accounting practices[link]

Enron created offshore entities (units which may be used for planning and avoidance of taxes, raising the profitability of a business). This provided ownership and management with full freedom of currency movement and the anonymity that allowed the company to hide losses. These entities made Enron look more profitable than it actually was, and created a dangerous spiral, in which each quarter, corporate officers would have to perform more and more financial deception to create the illusion of billions in profits while the company was actually losing money.^[21] This practice drove up their stock price to new levels, at which point the executives began to work on insider information and trade millions of dollars worth of Enron stock. The executives and insiders at Enron knew about the offshore accounts that were hiding losses for the company; however, the investors knew nothing of this. Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow led the team which created the off-books companies, and manipulated the deals to provide himself, his family, and his friends with hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed revenue, at the expense of the corporation for which he worked and its stockholders.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, Enron launched EnronOnline, an Internet-based trading operation, which was used by virtually every energy company in the United States. Enron president and chief operating officer Jeffrey Skilling began advocating a novel idea: the company didn't really need any "assets."^{[citation needed]} By pushing the company's aggressive investment strategy, he helped make Enron the biggest wholesaler of gas and electricity, trading over $27 billion per quarter. The firm's figures, however, had to be accepted at face value. Under Skilling, Enron adopted mark to market accounting, in which anticipated future profits from any deal were tabulated as if real today. Thus, Enron could record gains from what over time might turn out to be losses, as the company's fiscal health became secondary to manipulating its stock price on Wall Street during the Tech boom.^{[citation needed]} But when a company's success is measured by agreeable financial statements emerging from a black box, a term Skilling himself admitted, actual balance sheets prove inconvenient. Indeed, Enron's unscrupulous actions were often gambles to keep the deception going and so push up the stock price. An advancing number meant a continued infusion of investor capital on which debt-ridden Enron in large part subsisted. Much like a ponzi-scheme. Under pressure to maintain the illusion, Skilling verbally attacked Wall Street Analyst Richard Grubman,^[22] who questioned Enron's unusual accounting practice during a recorded conference call. When Grubman complained that Enron was the only company that could not release a balance sheet along with its earnings statements, Skilling replied "Well, thank you very much, we appreciate that . . . asshole." Though the comment was met with dismay and astonishment by press and public, it became an inside joke among many Enron employees, mocking Grubman for his perceived meddling rather than Skilling's lack of tact. When asked during his trial, Skilling wholeheartedly admitted that industrial dominance and abuse was a global problem: "Oh yes, yes sure, it is."^[23]

Peak and decline of stock price[link]

In August 2000, Enron's stock price hit its highest value of $90.^[24] At this point Enron executives, who possessed the inside information on the hidden losses, began to sell their stock. At the same time, the general public and Enron's investors were told to buy the stock. Executives told the investors that the stock would continue to climb until it reached possibly the $130 to $140 range, while secretly unloading their shares.

As executives sold their shares, the price began to drop. Investors were told to continue buying stock or hold steady if they already owned Enron because the stock price would rebound in the near future.^{[citation needed]} Kenneth Lay's strategy for responding to Enron's continuing problems was in his demeanor. As he did many times, Lay would issue a statement or make an appearance to calm investors and assure them that Enron was headed in the right direction.^{[citation needed]}

By August 15, 2001, Enron's stock price had fallen to $42. Many of the investors still trusted Lay and believed that Enron would rule the market.^{[citation needed]} They continued to buy or hold their stock as the equity value declined. As October closed, the stock had fallen to $15. Many saw this as a great opportunity to buy Enron stock because of what Lay had been telling them in the media.^{[citation needed]}

Lay was accused of selling over $70 million worth of stock at this time, which he used to repay cash advances on lines of credit. He sold another $20 million worth of stock in the open market.^{[citation needed]} Also, Lay's wife, Linda, was accused of selling 500,000 shares of Enron stock totaling $1.2 million on November 28, 2001. The money earned from this sale did not go to the family but rather to charitable organizations, which already received pledges of contributions from the foundation.^{[citation needed]} Records show that Mrs. Lay placed the sale order sometime between 10:00 and 10:20 am. News of Enron's problems, including the millions of dollars in losses they hid went public about 10:30 that morning, and the stock price soon fell to below one dollar.

Former Enron executive Paula Rieker was charged with criminal insider trading. Rieker obtained 18,380 Enron shares for $15.51 a share. She sold that stock for $49.77 a share in July 2001, a week before the public was told what she already knew about the $102 million loss.^{[citation needed]}

Post-bankruptcy[link]

Enron initially planned to retain its three domestic pipeline companies as well as most of its overseas assets. However, before emerging from bankruptcy, Enron spun off its domestic pipeline companies as CrossCountry Energy.^{[citation needed]}

Enron sold its last business, Prisma Energy, in 2006, leaving it as an asset-less shell.^{[citation needed]} In early 2007, it changed its name to Enron Creditors Recovery Corporation. Its goal is to pay off the old Enron's remaining creditors and wind down Enron's affairs.

Azurix, the former water utility branch of the company, remains under Enron ownership, although it remains asset-less. It is involved in several litigations against the government of Argentina claiming compensation relating to the negligence and corruption of the local governance during its management of the Buenos Aires water concession in 1999, which led to substantial amounts of debt (approx. $620 million) and the eventual collapse of the branch.^{[citation needed]}

Shortly after emerging from bankruptcy in November 2004, Enron's new board of directors sued 11 financial institutions for helping Lay, Fastow, Skilling and others hide Enron's true financial condition. The proceedings were dubbed the "megaclaims litigation." Among the defendants were Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. As of 2008^[update], Enron has settled with all of the institutions, ending with Citigroup. Enron was able to obtain nearly $20 billion dollars to distribute to its creditors as a result of the megaclaims litigation.^{[citation needed]} As of December 2009, some claim and process payments are still being distributed.

California's deregulation and subsequent energy crisis[link]

In October 2000, Daniel Scotto, the top ranked utility analyst on Wall Street, suspended his ratings on all energy companies conducting business in California because of the possibility that the companies would not receive full and adequate compensation for the deferred energy accounts used as the cornerstone for the California Deregulation Plan enacted in the late 1990s.^{[citation needed]} Five months later, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) was forced into bankruptcy. Senator Phil Gramm, the second largest recipient of campaign contributions from Enron,^[25] succeeded in legislating California's energy commodity trading deregulation. Despite warnings from prominent consumer groups which stated that this law would give energy traders too much influence over energy commodity prices, the legislation was passed in December 2000.

As Public Citizen reported, "Because of Enron’s new, unregulated power auction, the company’s 'Wholesale Services' revenues quadrupled—from $12 billion in the first quarter of 2000 to $48.4 billion in the first quarter of 2001."^[26]

Before passage of the deregulation law, there had been only one Stage 3 rolling blackout declared. Following passage, California had a total of 38 blackouts defined as Stage 3 rolling blackouts, until federal regulators intervened in June 2001.^{[citation needed]} These blackouts occurred mainly as a result of a poorly designed market system that was manipulated by traders and marketers. Enron traders were revealed as intentionally encouraging the removal of power from the market during California's energy crisis by encouraging suppliers to shut down plants to perform unnecessary maintenance, as documented in recordings made at the time.^[27][28] These acts contributed to the need for rolling blackouts, which adversely affected many businesses dependent upon a reliable supply of electricity, and inconvenienced a large number of retail consumers. This scattered supply raised the price exponentially, and Enron traders were thus able to sell power at premium prices, sometimes up to a factor of 20x its normal peak value.

See also[link]

	Houston portal
	Companies portal

• Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, an award-winning 2005 documentary film which examines the collapse of the Enron Corporation.
• The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron, a television movie aired by CBS in January 2003 based on the book Anatomy of Greed by Brian Cruver.
• Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron, a book by Robert Bryce.
• ENRON, a 2009 play by British playwright Lucy Prebble.
• Dot Com Bubble

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (December 2010)

• Robert Bryce, Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron (PublicAffairs, 2002) ISBN 1-58648-138-X
• Lynn Brewer, Matthew Scott Hansen, House of Cards, Confessions of An Enron Executive (Virtualbookworm.com Publishing, 2002) ISBN 1-58939-248-5 ISBN 1-58939-248-5
• Kurt Eichenwald, Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story (Broadway Books, 2005) ISBN 0-7679-1178-4
• Peter C. Fusaro, Ross M. Miller, What Went Wrong at Enron: Everyone's Guide to the Largest Bankruptcy in U.S. History (Wiley, 2002), ISBN 0-471-26574-8
• Loren Fox, Enron: The Rise and Fall. (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2003)
• Judith Haney Enron's Bust: Was it the result of Over-Confidence or a Confidence Game? USNewsLink/ December 13, 2001
• Marc Hodak, The Enron Scandal, Organizational Behavior Research Center Papers (SSRN), June 4, 2007
• Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind, Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron (Portfolio, 2003) ISBN 1-59184-008-2
• Mimi Swartz, Sherron Watkins, Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron (Doubleday, 2003) ISBN 0-385-50787-9
• Daniel Scotto "American Financial Analyst: The First Analyst to recommend the selling of Enron Stock"
• Calkins, Laurel Brubaker. “Enron Fraud Trial Ends in 5 Convictions.” The Washington Post 4 Nov. 2004: n. pag. Google. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn//A23034-2004Nov3.html>.

External links[link]

• All Enron emails released into the public domain, archived and searchable
• Enron Corporation homepage
• CrossCountry Energy L.L.C.
• Portland General Electric Company
• Northern Natural Gas Company
• "Enron—Legal News Archives" Breaking Legal News
• Enron and the Cult of Personality
• Enron's Code of Ethics
• Enron board records at the Hagley Library
• "The Fall of Enron" HBS Research paper
• Public Citizen Access to Justice,Financial Reform, and Government Accontability

Data[link]

• Yahoo!: Enron Corp. Company Profile
• Hoovers: Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. Profile
• Google Finance: Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. Profile
• Enron Chronology
• Enron Securities Litigation Web Site (Contains the ENRON historical stock quotes from 1997 to 2002.)

Julian Assange
Assange in Copenhagen
Born	(1971-07-03) 3 July 1971 (age 40)[1][2][3] Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Editor-in-chief and spokesperson for WikiLeaks, talk show host
Awards	Economist Freedom of Expression Award (2008) Amnesty International UK Media Award (2009) Sam Adams Award (2010) Le Monde Person of the Year (2010) Sydney Peace Foundation gold medal (2011) Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism (2011) Voltaire Award of the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties (2011) Walkleys Award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism (2011)

Julian Paul Assange ( /əˈsɒnʒ/ ə-SONZH; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian computer programmer, political/internet activist, publisher, and^[4][5] journalist.^[6][7][8] He is best known as the editor in chief and founder of WikiLeaks, a media website which publishes information from whistleblowers. The site acts as a conduit for worldwide news leaks, with a stated purpose of creating open governance.

WikiLeaks has published material about extrajudicial killings in Kenya, toxic waste dumping in Côte d'Ivoire, Church of Scientology manuals, Guantanamo Bay procedures, and banks such as Kaupthing and Julius Baer.^[9] In 2010, WikiLeaks published Iraq War documents and Afghan War documents about American involvement in the wars, some of which was classified material. On 28 November 2010, WikiLeaks and its five international print media partners (Der Spiegel, The New York Times, Le Monde, The Guardian and El País) began publishing U.S. diplomatic cables.^[10]

Assange was a hacker-activist in his youth, before becoming a computer programmer and then becoming internationally renowned for his work with WikiLeaks.^[11] He has lived in several countries and has made public appearances in many parts of the world to speak about freedom of the press, censorship, and investigative journalism. He has received numerous awards and nominations, including the 2009 Amnesty International Media Award, Readers' Choice for TIME magazine's 2010 Person of the Year, the 2011 Sydney Peace Foundation gold medal and the 2011 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism.^[12] Snorre Valen, a Norwegian parliamentarian, nominated him for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.^[13]

In 2010, a European Arrest Warrant was issued for Assange in relation to allegations of rape and sexual assault by two women in Sweden. Assange was arrested and after ten days in Wandsworth prison was freed on bail. On 30 May 2012 Assange lost his final Supreme Court appeal in England to avoid extradition to Sweden.^[14]

Early life[link]

Assange was born in Townsville, Queensland.^[15][16] When Julian was one year old, his mother Christine married theatre director Brett Assange, "who gave him his surname".^[2][17][18] In 1976, the family moved to Magnetic Island where Christine had previously resided. They lived in Horseshoe Bay, in an old abandoned pineapple farm".^[19] Later Assange and his mother lived in a cottage at Picnic Bay. His mother, Christine Ann Assange (née Hawkins)^[15], was the daughter of Australian Army Veteran, Academic and Principal of Northern Rivers College (Southern Cross University), Dr. Warren Alfred Hawkins, who was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and Norma Joan Hawkins (née Carelton), who "was a specialist in medieval literature".^{[20][21][22][23][24][25]} Norma Hawkins, Assange's maternal grandmother, is mentioned in the book Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier (1997).^[26] Assange has reportedly claimed himself that he is of Scottish, Irish, Taiwanese, Torres Strait Islander and French ancestry: he has said that "his maternal ancestors came to Australia in the mid-nineteenth century from Scotland and Ireland"; he has also said: "my mother is French", referring to her ancestry. Referring to his paternal grandfather: "my grandfather was a Taiwanese pirate".."who settled on Thursday Island where he met and married a Thursday Islander woman". He has also said that Brett Assange "was the descendant of a Chinese immigrant who had settled on Thursday Island", "his great-great-great-grandfather was a Taiwanese pirate". The name Assange is an anglicization of "Ah Sang" – Cantonese for "Mr Sang".^{[27][28][29][30]}

In the interview for Making Trouble, he tells about who he believes is his "biological father": "he did not meet his biological father, John Shipton, until he was 25", Manne writes; "strangely and perhaps revealingly, it [WikiLeaks] was registered under the names of two fathers, his biological one, John Shipton, and his cypherpunk political one, John Young, a New York architect who ran the intelligence leak website Cryptome, which could be seen as WikiLeaks' predecessor".^{[22][31][32][33]} John Shipton is also referred to as an "architect", and an "Australian citizen living in Kenya", who resided in Nairobi, Kenya in 2008 at the same time as Julian.^[34][35][36] He "met Assange's mother, Christine, then aged 17, at an antiques shop on his way to a Vietnam war demonstration".."little is known about the relationship, except that it had ended by the time of their son's first birthday – if not earlier"; Shipton "never took up residence or if he did only took up residence for a very short time" and "had no contact with [Assange]".^[37]

Youth[link]

During Assange's upbringing Brett and Christine Assange ran a touring theatre company. His stepfather, Julian's first "real dad", described Julian as "a very sharp kid" with "a keen sense of right and wrong". "He always stood up for the underdog ... he was always very angry about people ganging up on other people."^[18] In the mid-70's, Assange and his parents moved to North Lismore, New South Wales, and Assange attended Goolmangar Primary School in the nearby town of Goolmangar from 1979 to 1983.^[38]

In 1979, his mother remarried "Leif Meynall — or Leif Hamilton";^[39] her new husband was a musician whom Assange believed belonged to a New Age group called The Family, led by Yoga teacher Anne Hamilton-Byrne. The couple had a son, but broke up in 1982 and engaged in a custody struggle for Assange's half-brother. His divorced mother fled her boyfriend and travelled across Australia, taking both children into hiding for the next five years. Assange moved thirty times before he turned 14, attending many schools, including Goolmangar Primary School, sometimes being home-schooled.^[2][40][41] In an interview conducted by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Assange stated that he had lived in 50 different towns and attended 37 different schools.^[42] The family "by the time he was 16 or 17" lived in "a tiny cement bungalow in the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges, east of Melbourne", Victoria, first in the town of "Emerald and then Tecoma", now in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne.^[43][44]

Hacking and conviction[link]

In 1987, after turning 16, Assange began hacking under the name "Mendax" (derived from a phrase of Horace: "splendide mendax", or "nobly untruthful").^[2] He and two other hackers joined to form a group they named the International Subversives. Assange wrote down the early rules of the subculture: "Don't damage computer systems you break into (including crashing them); don't change the information in those systems (except for altering logs to cover your tracks); and share information".^[2] The Personal Democracy Forum said he was "Australia's most famous ethical computer hacker."^[45] The Australian Federal Police became aware of this group and set up "Operation Weather" to investigate their hacking. In September 1991, Mendax was discovered in the act of hacking into the Melbourne master terminal of Nortel, the Canadian telecommunications company.^[2] In response the Australian Federal Police tapped Assanges' phoneline and subsequently raided his Melbourne home in 1991.^[46] He was also reported to have accessed computers belonging to an Australian university,^[2] the USAF 7th Command Group in the Pentagon^[47] and other organisations, via modem.^[48] It took three years to bring the case to court, where he was charged with 31 counts of hacking and related crimes. Nortel said his incursions cost them more than $100,000. Assange's lawyers represented his hacking as a victimless crime. He pleaded guilty to 25 charges of hacking, after six charges were dropped, and was released on bond for good conduct with a fine of A$2,100.^[2][49] The judge said "there is just no evidence that there was anything other than sort of intelligent inquisitiveness and the pleasure of being able to—what's the expression—surf through these various computers"^[2] and stated that Assange would have gone to jail for up to 10 years if he had not had such a disrupted childhood.^[47]

In 2011, court records revealed that in 1993, Assange helped the Victoria Police Child Exploitation Unit by providing technical advice and assisted in prosecuting persons.^[50]

Child custody issues[link]

In 1988–1989, Assange married, then moved out and started living with his wife, Teresa, after they had a son, Daniel Assange.^[22][51] They split up before the period of Assange's arrest and conviction. They subsequently engaged in a lengthy custody struggle and did not agree on a custody arrangement until 1999.^[2][52]

The entire process prompted Assange and his mother to form Parent Inquiry Into Child Protection, an activist group centered on creating a "central databank" for otherwise inaccessible legal records related to child custody issues in Australia.^[52] In an interview with ABC Radio, his mother explained their "most important" issue was demanding "that there be direct access to the children's court by any member of the public for an application for protection for any child that they believe is at serious risk from abuse, where the child protection agency has rejected that notification."^[53]

Computer programming and other employment[link]

In 1993, Assange was involved in starting one of the first public internet service providers in Australia, Suburbia Public Access Network.^[4][54][55] Starting in 1994, he lived in Melbourne as a programmer and a developer of free software.^[49] In 1995, he wrote Strobe, the first free and open source port scanner.^[56][57] He contributed several patches to the PostgreSQL project in 1996.^[58][59] He helped to write the book Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier (1997), which credits him as a researcher and reports his history with International Subversives.^[26][60] Starting around 1997, he co-invented the Rubberhose deniable encryption system, a cryptographic concept made into a software package for Linux designed to provide plausible deniability against rubber-hose cryptanalysis;^[61] he originally intended the system to be used "as a tool for human rights workers who needed to protect sensitive data in the field."^[62] Other free software that he has authored or co-authored includes the Usenet caching software NNTPCache^[63] and Surfraw, a command-line interface for web-based search engines. In 1998, "Assange co-founded his first and only Australian company, Earthmen Technology".^[19] Assange was characterised as a "cryptographer" in a Suelette Dreyfus article published in The Independent, 15 November 1999 – "This is just between us (and the spies)", and was said to have been the moderator of "the online Australian discussion forum AUCRYPTO", and during this time Assange claimed to have found a new patent relating to the US National Security Agency's technology for monitoring calls, "while investigating NSA capabilities". Assange said that "this patent should worry people. Everyone's overseas phone calls are or may soon be tapped, transcribed and archived in the bowels of an unaccountable foreign spy agency".^[64] In 1999, he registered the domain leaks.org, but he says he "didn't do anything with it."^[65]

University studies[link]

From 2002 to 2005, Assange attended the University of Melbourne and University of Canberra as an undergraduate student, he started a Bachelors of Science degree, studying physics, pure mathematics, and briefly philosophy and neuroscience.^{[40][45][66][67]} In most of his maths courses, he received the minimum "pass" grade.^[68] He did not graduate; the fact that his fellow students were doing research for Pentagon's DARPA was reportedly a factor in motivating him to drop out and start WikiLeaks.^[2][40][67]

Career as head of WikiLeaks[link]

Assange, in or before 2006

WikiLeaks was founded in 2006.^[2][69] That year, Assange wrote two essays setting out the philosophy behind WikiLeaks: "To radically shift regime behaviour we must think clearly and boldly for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed. We must think beyond those who have gone before us and discover technological changes that embolden us with ways to act in which our forebears could not."^[70][71][72] In his blog he wrote, "the more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie.... Since unjust systems, by their nature, induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance."^[70][73]

Assange is the most prominent media spokesman on WikiLeaks' behalf. In June 2010, he was listed alongside several others as a member of the WikiLeaks advisory board.^[74][75] While newspapers have described him as a "director"^[76] or "founder"^[46] of WikiLeaks, Assange has said, "I don't call myself a founder";^[77] he does describe himself as the editor in chief of WikiLeaks,^[78] and has stated that he has the final decision in the process of vetting documents submitted to the site.^[79] Assange says that WikiLeaks has released more classified documents than the rest of the world press combined: "That's not something I say as a way of saying how successful we are – rather, that shows you the parlous state of the rest of the media. How is it that a team of five people has managed to release to the public more suppressed information, at that level, than the rest of the world press combined? It's disgraceful."^[69] He advocates a "transparent" and "scientific" approach to journalism, saying that "you can't publish a paper on physics without the full experimental data and results; that should be the standard in journalism."^[80][81] In 2006, CounterPunch called him "Australia's most infamous former computer hacker."^[82] The Age has called him "one of the most intriguing people in the world" and "internet's freedom fighter."^[65] Assange has called himself "extremely cynical".^[65] He has been described as being largely self-taught and widely read on science and mathematics,^[49] and as thriving on intellectual battle.^[83]

WikiLeaks has been involved in the publication of material documenting extrajudicial killings in Kenya, a report of toxic waste dumping on the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, Church of Scientology manuals, Guantanamo Bay procedures, the 12 July 2007 Baghdad airstrike video, and material involving large banks such as Kaupthing and Julius Baer among other documents.^[9] In 2008, Assange published an article entitled "The Hidden Curse of Thomas Paine", in which he wrote "What does it mean when only those facts about the world with economic powers behind them can be heard, when the truth lays naked before the world and no one will be the first to speak without payment or subsidy?"^[84]

Public appearances[link]

In addition to exercising great authority and editorial control within WikiLeaks, Assange acts as its public face. He has appeared at media conferences such as New Media Days '09 in Copenhagen,^[85] the 2010 Logan Symposium in Investigative Reporting at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism,^[86] and at hacker conferences, notably the 25th and 26th Chaos Communication Congress.^[87] In the first half of 2010, he appeared on Al Jazeera English, MSNBC, Democracy Now!, RT, and The Colbert Report to discuss the release of the Baghdad airstrike video by WikiLeaks. On 3 June he appeared via videoconferencing at the Personal Democracy Forum conference with Daniel Ellsberg.^[88][89] Ellsberg told MSNBC "the explanation he [Assange] used" for not appearing in person in the U.S. was that "it was not safe for him to come to this country."^[90] On 11 June he was to appear on a Showcase Panel at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in Las Vegas,^[91] but there are reports that he cancelled several days prior.^[92]

On 10 June 2010, it was reported that Pentagon officials were trying to determine his whereabouts.^[93][94] Based on this, there were reports that U.S. officials wanted to apprehend Assange.^[95] Ellsberg said that the arrest of Bradley Manning and subsequent speculation by U.S. officials about what Assange may be about to publish "puts his well-being, his physical life, in some danger now."^[90] In The Atlantic, Marc Ambinder called Ellsberg's concerns "ridiculous", and said that "Assange's tendency to believe that he is one step away from being thrown into a black hole hinders, and to some extent discredits, his work."^[96] In Salon.com, Glenn Greenwald questioned "screeching media reports" that there was a "manhunt" on Assange underway, arguing that they were only based on comments by "anonymous government officials" and might even serve a campaign by the U.S. government, by intimidating possible whistleblowers.

On 21 June 2010, he took part at a hearing in Brussels, Belgium, appearing in public for the first time in nearly a month.^[97] He was a member on a panel that discussed Internet censorship and expressed his worries over the recent filtering in countries such as Australia. He also talked about secret gag orders preventing newspapers from publishing information about specific subjects and even divulging the fact that they are being gagged. Using an example involving The Guardian, he also explained how newspapers are altering their online archives sometimes by removing entire articles.^[98][99] He told The Guardian that he does not fear for his safety but is on permanent alert and will avoid travel to America, saying "[U.S.] public statements have all been reasonable. But some statements made in private are a bit more questionable." He said "politically it would be a great error for them to act. I feel perfectly safe but I have been advised by my lawyers not to travel to the U.S. during this period."^[97]

On 17 July, Jacob Appelbaum spoke on behalf of WikiLeaks at the 2010 Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference in New York City, replacing Assange due to the presence of federal agents at the conference.^[100][101] He announced that the WikiLeaks submission system was again up and running, after it had been temporarily suspended.^[100][102] Assange was a surprise speaker at a TED conference on 19 July 2010, in Oxford, and confirmed that WikiLeaks was now accepting submissions again.^{[103][104][105]} On 26 July, after the release of the Afghan War Diary, he appeared at the Frontline Club for a press conference.^[106]

On 14 February 2011, Assange filed for the trademark "JULIAN ASSANGE" in Europe. The trademark is to be used for "public speaking services; news reporter services; journalism; publication of texts other than publicity texts; education services; entertainment services".^[107] On 15 March 2011, Assange gave a speech at the Cambridge Union Society.^[108][109] After initially discouraging recording, a video of this has been made available by the Society.^[110]

On 19 February 2012 the 500th episode of The Simpsons' "At Long Last Leave" was aired, which features Assange guest-starring as himself in a scene written by Australian author Kathy Lette, the wife of Assange's adviser Geoffrey Robertson QC.^[111][112]

Release of U.S. diplomatic cables[link]

On 28 November 2010, WikiLeaks began releasing some of the 251,000 American diplomatic cables in their possession, of which over 53 percent are listed as unclassified, 40 percent are "Confidential" and just over six percent are classified "Secret". The following day, the Attorney-General of Australia, Robert McClelland, told the press that Australia would inquire into Assange's activities and WikiLeaks.^[113] He said that "from Australia's point of view, we think there are potentially a number of criminal laws that could have been breached by the release of this information. The Australian Federal Police are looking at that".^[114] McClelland would not rule out the possibility that Australian authorities will cancel Assange's passport, and warned him that he might face charges should he return to Australia.^[115] The Federal Police inquiry found that Assange had not committed any crime.^[116]

The United States Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation related to the leak. U.S. prosecutors are reportedly considering charges against Assange under several laws, but any prosecution would be difficult.^[117] In relation to its ongoing investigations of WikiLeaks, on 14 December 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a subpoena ordering Twitter to release information relating to Assange's account, amongst others.^[118][119]

Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg said that Assange "is serving our democracy and serving our rule of law precisely by challenging the secrecy regulations, which are not laws in most cases, in this country." On the issue of national security considerations for the U.S., Ellsberg added, "He's obviously a very competent guy in many ways. I think his instincts are that most of this material deserves to be out. We are arguing over a very small fragment that doesn't. He has not yet put out anything that hurt anybody's national security."^[120] Assange told London reporters that the leaked cables showed U.S. ambassadors around the world were ordered "to engage in espionage behaviour", which he said seemed to be "representative of a gradual shift to a lack of rule of law in U.S. institutions that needs to be exposed and that we have been exposing."^[121]

The WikiLeaks diplomatic cable revelations have been credited by some commentators with being a factor in sparking the Tunisian Revolution, as such leaked cables revealed the degree of corruption in the then ruling government. Writing for Foreign Policy magazine, journalist Elizabeth Dickinson suggested that "Tunisians didn't need any more reasons to protest when they took to the streets these past weeks – food prices were rising, corruption was rampant, and unemployment was staggering. But we might also count Tunisia as the first time that WikiLeaks pushed people over the brink..."^[122][123]

Recognition as a journalist[link]

Assange received the 2009 Media award from Amnesty International for Kenya: The Cry of Blood – Extra Judicial Killings and Disappearances,^[8] and he has been recognized as a journalist by the Centre for Investigative Journalism.^[7] Assange has been a member of the Australian journalist union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, for several years, and in 2011, was made an honorary member.^[124][125] Alex Massie wrote an article in The Spectator called "Yes, Julian Assange is a journalist", but acknowledged that "newsman" might be a better description of Assange.^[6] Alan Dershowitz said "Without a doubt. He is a journalist, a new kind of journalist".^[126] Assange has said that he has been publishing factual material since age 25, and that it is not necessary to debate whether or not he is a journalist. He has stated that his role is "primarily that of a publisher and editor-in-chief who organises and directs other journalists".^[127]

Financial developments[link]

On 6 December 2010, the Swiss bank, PostFinance, announced that it had frozen assets of Assange's totalling 31,000 euros, because he had "provided false information regarding his place of residence" when opening the account.^[128] MasterCard,^[129] Visa Inc.,^[130] and Bank of America^[131] also halted dealings with WikiLeaks. Assange described these actions as "business McCarthyism".^[132] The English-language Swedish newspaper web-site "Local" quoted Assange on 27 December 2010, as saying that legal costs for the whistleblowing website and his own defence had reached £500,000. The decisions to halt donations to WikiLeaks by Visa, MasterCard and PayPal had cost £425,000, the same amount it costs the website to publish for six months. Assange said WikiLeaks had been receiving as much as £85,000 a day at its peak, before the financial blockade^[133]

"Autobiography"[link]

In December 2010, Assange sold the publishing rights^[134] to his proposed autobiography for over £1 million. He told The Sunday Times that he was forced to enter the deals for an autobiography due to the financial difficulties he and the site encountered, stating "I don't want to write this book, but I have to. I have already spent £200,000 for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat."^[135]

A draft of this work was published, without Assange's consent, in September 2011. The book was ghostwritten by Andrew O'Hagan and was given the title Julian Assange – The Unauthorised Autobiography (2011). Assange and the publisher, Canongate, gave differing accounts of the circumstances around the publication.^[136][137]

The World Tomorrow[link]

In January 2012, WikiLeaks announced that Assange would launch "a series of in-depth conversations with key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries from around the world", titled The World Tomorrow.^[138] The first of twelve completed interview programs was broadcast by the state-run^[139] RT network on 17 April with other networks expected to follow. The series will be broadcast on a weekly basis, and the 26-minute episodes will also be made available online.^[140][141] The show's first guest was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.^[142][143]

Commentary[link]

Comments by the Australian government[link]

The publication of Australian government briefings after a Senate request showed the government had privately discussed charging Assange with treason, which they never mentioned publicly.^[144] Julia Gillard stated that Assange's actions were "illegal", which was later retracted when a Australian Federal Police commission determined he had not broken any Australian laws. They also found no grounds to withdraw his Australian passport after an investigation by the Australian Federal Police. Since then, government representatives and the major opposition, including Craig Emerson the Minister for Trade and Helen Coonan the former minister for Communications, have made statements supportive of WikiLeaks and deprecated some threats. Emerson stated on ABC's Q&A program; "We condemn absolutely the threats that have been made by some people in the United States against Julian Assange and he deserves all of the rights of being an Australian citizen."^[145]

Support from Australians[link]

Demonstration in support of Assange in front of Sydney Town Hall, 10 December 2010.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has come under widespread condemnation and a backlash within her own party for failing to support Assange after calling the leaks "an illegal act" and suggesting that his Australian passport should be cancelled. Hundreds of lawyers, academics and journalists came forward in his support with Attorney-General Robert McClelland, unable to explain how Assange had broken Australian law. Opposition Legal Affairs spokesman, Senator George Brandis, a Queen's Counsel, accused Gillard of being "clumsy" with her language, stating, "As far as I can see, he (Assange) hasn't broken any Australian law, nor does it appear he has broken any American laws." Former Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who supports Assange, stated that any decision to cancel the passport would be his, not Gillard's. Queen's Counsel Peter Faris, who acted for Assange in a hacking case 15 years ago, said that the motives of Swedish authorities in seeking Assange's extradition for alleged sex offences are suspect: "You have to say: why are they [Sweden] pursuing it? It's pretty obvious that if it was Bill Bloggs, they wouldn't be going to the trouble." Following the Swedish Embassy issuing of a "prepared and unconvincing reply" in response to letters of protest, Gillard was called on to send a message to Sweden "querying the way charges were laid, investigated and dropped, only to be picked up again by a different prosecutor."^{[146][147][148][149][150]}

On 10 December 2010, over five hundred people rallied outside Sydney Town Hall and about three hundred and fifty people gathered in Brisbane^[151] where Assange's lawyer, Rob Stary, criticised Julia Gillard's position, telling the rally that the Australian government was a "sycophant" of the U.S. A petition circulated by GetUp!, who have placed full page ads in support of Assange in The New York Times and The Washington Times, received more than 50,000 signatures.^[149]

Detraction by U.S. officials[link]

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Current and former U.S. government officials have accused Assange of terrorism. When asked if he saw Assange more as a high-tech terrorist or as a whistleblower, like those who released the Pentagon papers in the 1970s, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said: "I would argue it is closer to being a high-tech terrorist than the Pentagon papers."^[152] In May 2010, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had used the phrase, calling Assange "a high-tech terrorist", and saying "he has done enormous damage to our country. I think he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law".^[153] Also in May 2010, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said: "Information terrorism, which leads to people getting killed, is terrorism, and Julian Assange is engaged in terrorism. He should be treated as an enemy combatant."^[154]

In July 2010, after WikiLeaks released classified documents related to the war in Afghanistan, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, said at a Pentagon news conference, "Disagree with the war all you want, take issue with the policy, challenge me or our ground commanders on the decisions we make to accomplish the mission we've been given, but don't put those who willingly go into harm's way even further in harm's way just to satisfy your need to make a point. Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is, they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family." Assange responded later in an interview by saying, "There is, as far as we can tell, no incident of that. So it is a speculative charge. Of course, we are treating any possible revelation of the names of innocents seriously. That is why we held back 15,000 of these documents, to review that". Assange also pointed out the irony of U.S. officials and military leaders accusing him of having blood on his hands.^[155]

Support in U.S.[link]

Daniel Ellsberg, who was working in the U.S. Department of Defense when he leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, was a signatory to a statement by an international group of former intelligence officers and ex-government officials in support of Assange's work, which was released in late December 2010. Other signatories included David MacMichael, Ray McGovern, and five recipients of annual Sam Adams Award: Frank Grevil, Katharine Gun, Craig Murray, Coleen Rowley and Larry Wilkerson.^[156] Ellsberg has said, "If I released the Pentagon Papers today, the same rhetoric and the same calls would be made about me ... I would be called not only a traitor – which I was [called] then, which was false and slanderous – but I would be called a terrorist... Assange and Bradley Manning are no more terrorists than I am."^[157]

Support from other governments and U.N.[link]

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, then president of Brazil, expressed his "solidarity" with Assange following his 2010 arrest in the United Kingdom.^[158][159] He further criticised the arrest of Assange as "an attack on freedom of expression".^[160]

Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister of Russia, condemned Assange's detention as "undemocratic".^[146] A source within the office of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested that Assange be nominated for a Nobel Prize, and said that "Public and non-governmental organisations should think of how to help him."^[161]

In December 2010, the United Nations' Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Frank LaRue, said Assange or other WikiLeaks staff should not face criminal charges for any information they disseminated, noting that "if there is a responsibility by leaking information it is of, exclusively of the person that made the leak and not of the media that publish it. And this is the way that transparency works and that corruption has been confronted in many cases."^[162]

Awards[link]

He won the 2009 Amnesty International UK Media Award (New Media),^[163] for exposing extrajudicial assassinations in Kenya by distributing and publicizing the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR)'s investigation The Cry of Blood – Extra Judicial Killings and Disappearances.^[164][165] Accepting the award, Assange said, "It is a reflection of the courage and strength of Kenyan civil society that this injustice was documented."^[166]

In 2010, Assange was awarded the Sam Adams Award,^[167][168] Readers' Choice in TIME magazine's Person of the Year poll,^[12] and runner-up for Person of the Year.^[169] In April 2011 he was listed on the Time 100 list of most influential people.^[170] An informal poll of editors at Postmedia Network named him the top newsmaker for the year after six out of 10 felt Assange had "affected profoundly how information is seen and delivered".^[171]

Le Monde, one of the five publications to cooperate with WikiLeaks' publication of the recent document leaks, named him person of the year with fifty six percent of the votes in their online poll.^{[172][173][174]}

In February 2011, it was announced that Assange had been awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation gold medal by the Sydney Peace Foundation of the University of Sydney for his "exceptional courage and initiative in pursuit of human rights."^[175] There have been four recipients of the award in the foundation's fourteen year history: Nelson Mandela; the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso; Daisaku Ikeda; and Assange.^[175]

In June 2011, Assange was awarded the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. The prize is awarded on an annual basis to journalists "whose work has penetrated the established version of events and told an unpalatable truth that exposes establishment propaganda, or 'official drivel'". The judges said, "WikiLeaks has been portrayed as a phenomenon of the hi-tech age, which it is. But it's much more. Its goal of justice through transparency is in the oldest and finest tradition of journalism."^[176]

Allegations of sexual molestation[link]

In 2010, a European Arrest Warrant was issued for Assange in response to a Swedish police request for questioning in relation to a sexual assault investigation. Assange voluntarily attended a police station in England on 7 December 2010, and was arrested and taken into custody. After ten days in Wandsworth prison, Assange was freed on bail with a residence requirement at Ellingham Hall in Norfolk, England, fitted with an electronic tag and ordered to report to police daily. Assange appealed a February 2011 decision by English courts to extradite him to Sweden, saying the allegations were "without basis".^[177][178] On 2 November 2011 the High Court upheld the extradition decision and rejected all four grounds of appeal presented by Assange's legal representatives. Costs of £19000 were also awarded against Assange.

On 20 August 2010, Swedish police began an investigation into allegations concerning Assange's behaviour in separate sexual encounters involving two different women.^[179][180] Assange has said the allegations are "without basis",^[181] describing all the sexual encounters as consensual.^[182][183] In December 2010, Assange, then in Britain, learned that the Swedish authorities had issued a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) to extradite him to Sweden for questioning.

According to published reports, the charges Sweden has lodged against Assange involve two different women. Their initial intention was reportedly to force Assange to take an HIV test. There are four charges: that on 14 August 2010 he committed "unlawful coercion" when he held complainant 1 down with his body weight in a sexual manner; that he "sexually molested" complainant 1 when he had condom-less sex with her after she insisted that he use one; that he had condom-less sex with complainant 2 on the morning of 17 August while she was asleep; and that he "deliberately molested" complainant 1 on 18 August 2010 by pressing his erect penis against her body.^[184][185]

An extradition hearing took place on 7–8 and 11 February 2011 before the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court^[186][187] when the extradition warrant was upheld.^{[188][189][190][191]}

On 2 March 2011, his lawyers lodged papers at the High Court challenging the ruling to extradite Assange to Sweden.^[192] After a hearing on 12 and 13 July 2011, the High Court reserved its judgment, and on 2 November 2011, dismissed his appeal.^[193] On 5 December 2011 Assange's lawyers were granted permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, after the High Court certified that a point of law of general public importance, that ought to be considered by the Supreme Court, was involved in its decision.^[194] The certified question is whether a prosecutor can be a judicial authority.^[195][196] The Supreme Court heard argument in the appeal on 1 and 2 February 2012.^[197] and reserved its judgment, ^[198] while Assange remained on conditional bail.^[192][199] On 30 May 2012 the court dismissed the appeal by a majority of 5–2.^[200] The court granted Assange two weeks to make an application to reopen the appeal on the basis that the judgments of the majority relied on an interpretation of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties which was not argued during the hearing.^[201]

Residency[link]

Though an Australian citizen, Assange has not lived in Australia since he left after he started work on WikiLeaks.^[5] In 2007 Assange moved to Kenya. Since 2007, he also spent time in Tanzania, stayed in Cairo, Egypt for a week,^[202] Paris, France, Wiesbaden, Germany for two months,^[203] and also Iceland.^{[204][205][206]} He began renting a house in Iceland on 30 March 2010, from which he and other activists, including Birgitta Jónsdóttir, worked on the Collateral Murder video.^[2]

Over the course of 2009–2010 he travelled around Europe, including the United Kingdom, Iceland, Sweden, Austria, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Spain.^{[207][208][209]} On 4 November 2010, Assange told Swiss public television TSR that he was seriously considering seeking political asylum in neutral Switzerland and moving the operation of the WikiLeaks foundation there.^[210] In December 2010, it was reported that U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Donald S. Beyer had warned the Swiss government against offering asylum to Assange, citing the arrest warrant issued by Interpol.^[211]

In late November 2010, Kintto Lucas, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Ecuador, spoke about giving Assange residency with "no conditions... so he can freely present the information he possesses and all the documentation, not just over the Internet but in a variety of public forums".^[212] Lucas believed that Ecuador may benefit from initiating a dialogue with Assange.^[213] Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño stated on 30 November that the residency application would "have to be studied from the legal and diplomatic perspective".^[214] A few hours later, President Rafael Correa stated that WikiLeaks "committed an error by breaking the laws of the United States and leaking this type of information... no official offer was [ever] made."^[215][216] Correa noted that Lucas was speaking "on his own behalf"; additionally, he will launch an investigation into possible ramifications Ecuador would suffer from the release of the cables.^[216]

In a hearing at the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on 7 December 2010, Assange identified a post office box as his address. When told by the judge that this information was not acceptable, he submitted "Parkville, Victoria, Australia" on a sheet of paper. His lack of permanent address and nomadic lifestyle were cited by the judge as factors in denying bail.^[217] He was ultimately released, in part because journalist Vaughan Smith offered to provide Assange with an address for bail during the extradition proceedings, Smith's Norfolk mansion, Ellingham Hall.^[218] He lived there for a year, then moved out in December 2011 to a "3,000-acre estate in East Sussex" - "a lodge on Lord Abergavenny's Eridge Park estate, near Tunbridge Wells".^[219][220]

Political and economic views[link]

According to Assange, "It’s not correct to put me in any one philosophical or economic camp, because I’ve learned from many. But one is American libertarianism, market libertarianism. So as far as markets are concerned I’m a libertarian, but I have enough expertise in politics and history to understand that a free market ends up as monopoly unless you force them to be free."^[221]

Running for Australian Senate[link]

On 17 March 2012 WikiLeaks announced on its Twitter account that Assange plans to run for the Australian Senate in the next Australian federal election.^[222] In May 2012 The Sydney Morning Herald reported that in a poll of 1,000 voters, 25% of them were likely to vote for Mr Assange if he ran, which pollster John Utting said means "a very real chance of being elected to the Senate should he run.^[223]

Works[link]

Books

• Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier (1997) (Assange is credited as "researcher" for the credited principal author, Suelette Dreyfus)

Essays

• State and Terrorist Conspiracies (2006)
• Conspiracy as Governance (2006)
• The Hidden Curse of Thomas Paine (2008)

References[link]