On November 28, Enron Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, marking one of the largest corporate collapses in United States history. The Houston-based energy trading and utilities company had grown rapidly in the 1990s, expanding from pipeline operations into energy trading, broadband ventures, and complex financial structures. By the early 2000s, Enron was widely celebrated on Wall Street for earnings growth and innovative business models, and it was considered a blue-chip stock by many institutional investors. The bankruptcy filing followed a rapid unravelling in late 2001, as independent scrutiny and media reporting exposed accounting practices that obscured the company’s true financial condition. Enron used special-purpose entities, off-balance-sheet partnerships, and complex transactions to hide mounting losses and to keep debt off its publicly reported balance sheet. When analysts, journalists and some regulators began to question Enron’s accounting, investor confidence evaporated. Creditors pulled lines of credit and counterparties curtailed business, precipitating a liquidity crisis. As the firm’s share price collapsed, trading partners and rating agencies reacted swiftly. In the weeks preceding the filing, Enron’s stock fell from its 2000 highs to near worthlessness, wiping out shareholder value and eroding employee retirement savings heavily invested in company stock. The company disclosed significant write-downs and restatements of prior financial statements, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opened an investigation into Enron’s accounting practices and disclosures. The bankruptcy set off wide-ranging legal and regulatory consequences. Executives were investigated and several faced criminal charges for fraud and conspiracy related to the accounting manipulations and misleading disclosures to investors. Auditing firm Arthur Andersen, which had been Enron’s auditor, faced intense scrutiny and indictment related to its role in reviewing Enron’s accounts and destroying related documents; the firm’s reputation and business collapsed, contributing to its effective dissolution. Beyond the legal fallout, Enron’s collapse prompted major reforms in corporate governance, auditing, and financial reporting. Congressional hearings examined the failures of corporate oversight, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 enacted reforms aimed at strengthening corporate responsibility, enhancing financial disclosures, and increasing penalties for corporate fraud. The crisis also led to changes in accounting rules and greater scrutiny of off-balance-sheet arrangements. The human and economic costs were substantial. Thousands of employees lost jobs and retirement funds; investors, creditors and pension plans incurred heavy losses; and confidence in corporate reporting and auditing suffered a significant blow. The Enron case became a cautionary example of the risks posed by opaque financial engineering, weak oversight, and conflicts of interest between management, auditors and financial intermediaries. While the broad outlines of the company’s misconduct and the filing date are well documented, some details about internal transactions, individual motivations and the full extent of losses evolved through subsequent investigations, trials and civil suits. The Enron bankruptcy remains a landmark event in U.S. corporate history and a reference point in debates about transparency, regulation and corporate ethics.