1) Enron began as a natural gas pipeline company in 1985 and later expanded into energy trading and commodities trading. 2) In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Enron grew rapidly but faced allegations of improper accounting practices. 3) In 2001, Enron collapsed into bankruptcy after its accounting practices became public knowledge, putting thousands out of jobs and wiping out the retirement savings of many employees.

1. ENRONLa caída de ENRON

2. 1985Enron began as a pipeline company in Houston in 1985. It profited by promising to deliver so many cubic feet of gas to a particular utility or business on a particular day at a market price. That changed with the deregulation of electrical power markets, a change due in part to lobbying from senior Enron officials. Under the direction of former Chairman Kenneth L. Lay, Enron expanded into an energy broker, trading electricity and other commodities.

3. 1995Activists of various leftist trade unions attempt to break the police cordon, in south Bombay, Wednesday, July 5, 1995, demanding the total scrapping of the US based power company, Enron's Dabhol power plant for environmental and political reasons. The project has been put under the Maharashtra state government's review panel which will decide the fate of Enron in India.

4. 1999Specialists conduct trades in Enron Oil and Gas on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday morning Aug. 11, 1999. An offering of 31 million common shares of Enron Oil & Gas Co., increased from the originally planned 27 million shares, was priced through underwriters led by Goldman Sachs & Co.

5. 2000Nolan Ryan acknowledges the crowd before throwing out the first ceremonial pitch at the new Enron Field before the inaugural exhibition game between the Houston Astros and New York Yankees Thursday, March 30, 2000, in Houston.

6. 2000Kenneth Lay, right, CEO of the Texas-based energy giant Enron Corp., visits with former president George Bush prior to the Houston Astros regular-season home opener against the Philadelphia Phillies at Houston's new Enron Field, Friday night, April 7, 2000. Lay has been a major contributor for Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. George W. Bush, foreground.

7. 2000Thesmartestguys in theroom

8. 2000The gas trading floors at the Enron Headquarters.

9. 2000Louise Kitchen, Networks President and CEO of EnronOnline

10. 2001A worker stands under a newly constructed steel dome inside the terminal of Enron's Indian subsidiary, Dabhol Power Corporation, that is being readied to contain liquified natural gas, at Dabhol, 300 kms south of Bombay, Jan. 19, 2001. Enron has run into trouble with the Maharashtra state government that has objected to high power tariffs over the past few months in the project's first phase that runs on naphtha. Enron says tariffs will fall once the second phase to be run on LNG is commissioned by late 2001.

11. 2001Jeffrey Skilling, CEO and president of Enron Corporation, speaks in Dallas, Tuesday, March 23, 2001. In one of his first public appearances since taking over the chief executive's job at the Houston-based power company, Skilling gave a speech to a business group in Dallas.

12. Protesters congregate outside the Commonwealth Club where Jeffrey Skilling, CEO of Houston-based Enron Corp., gave a lecture on California's energy crisis Thursday, June 21, 2001, in San Francisco. Skilling was grazed by a pie thrown at him prior to his lecture. 2001

13. 2001An activist of the National Alliance of People's Movement, a human rights organization, rings a warning bell demanding U.S. energy giant Enron Corp. to quit a controversial power project in western India, during a protest in Bombay Friday, June 22, 2001. Protesters accused Dabhol Power Company, Enron's India unit, of charging unaffordable rates and have called for renegotiations of the agreement to purchase power.

14. 2001Protester demands refunds for high energy prices paid by California consumers, during a protest in Long Beach, Calif., Wednesday, July 4, 2001, as she holds a cardboard poster of Enron Chairman Ken Lay. About 200 people carrying signs reading “public power, not corporate bailout” and “human need, not corporate greed” marched two miles from the park to the Alamitos generating station.

15. 2001Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, left, is congratulated by Ken Lay, chairman and chief executive officer of Enron, after receiving the Baker Institute's Enron Prize for Distinguished Public Service Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2001, at Rice University in Houston.

16. 2001Specialist Fred Yack, left, directs trading in shares of Enron on the floor of the NYSE, Monday Oct. 29, 2001. Enron Corp.'s stock slid to new lows on Monday, pushed down in part by Moody's Investors Service announcing a possible downgrade of the company's credit rating. The downgrade came as Enron negotiates with banks to establish new credit lines as the company struggles to bounce back from disappointing earnings and a scandal over losses stemming from partnerships managed by the company's former chief financial officer.

17. 2001Enron Corp. headquarters, right, and a partially completed second tower, left, are seen from a window in Dynegy Inc.'s headquarters just down the street Thursday, Nov. 29, 2001, in Houston.

18. 2001Houston-based energy giant Enron collapsed on November 29, 2001 after talks broke down with Dynergy and their stocks plunged to 61 cents. All its employees were laid off.

19. 2001An unidentified woman carries a box from Enron headquarters Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2001 in dowtown Houston amid speculation the energy trading company is on the verge of bankruptcy. Dynegy Inc. officials announced their decision to call off its planned $8.4 billion acquisition of the energy giant shortly after two agencies downgraded Enron's credit rating to junk status.

20. Enron employee Meredith Stewart sits on her box full of personal items as she waits for a ride outside Enron Monday, Dec. 3, 2001 in Houston. A laid-off Enron personnel worker says four-thousand Enron employees have been told they also will be laid off by the bankrupt Houston energy-trading company. Enron Corp. filed for Chapter Eleven bankruptcy protection from its creditors in New York yesterday. 2001

21. 2001Attorney William Lerach, representing Amalgamated Bank, uses a timeline of the Enron Corp. daily share price, Dec. 5, 2001, as he describes the company's demise. Amalgamated Bank filed suit in federal court in Houston against 29 Enron executives and directors, as well as Arthur Andersen LLP, the company's independent auditor. The suit alleges that executives at Enron inflated earnings to drive up share prices, resulting in $1.1 billion in proceeds for the executives

22. Aerial view of the Enron Sandhill 180-megawatt natural gas power plant in Austin. It was built by a Houston-based Enron subsidiary near the Austin airport. Enron Sandhill owns about 10 percent of the plant; the rest is owned by Austin Energy. In one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in U.S. history, Enron has filed for Chapter 11 protection and sued rival Dynegy Inc. for $10 billion, asserting that its fellow Houston company breached a merger agreement by backing out of its November 9 deal to buy Enron.2001

23. 2002Store-keeper Suyog Joshi, reports for work at the deserted and rusting US energy giant Enron's Dabhol Power Corporation plant, south of Bombay, Feb. 2, 2002. A staff of 250 continue to look after the upkeep of the plant which stopped generating power on May 26, 1999 following a payment dispute with the local state utility. Over 5,000 workers were laid off following the shut down of the 2184 MW plant.

24. 2002Former Enron CEO Jeffery Skilling, current CEO Jeff McMahon, and Vice President of Corporate Development Sherron Watkins being sworn in and testifying at the Enron Senate Hearing. Feb. 6th 2002

25. Kenneth L. Lay, former Chairman and CEO, Enron Corporation, declines to testify before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.2002

26. 2002This building shown Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2002, in New York, houses the largest office in North America for Arthur Andersen LLP. David Duncan, who oversaw Enron's audits from the Houston office of Arthur Andersen LLP, led a hurry-up effort to destroy documents in the Enron case is cooperating with congressional investigators a day after his accounting firm fired him, his attorneys said.

27. 2002Workers take down one of the few remaining Enron Field signs outside the formely named ballpark Tuesday, March 19, 2002 in Houston. The Houston Astros paid about $2.1 million to take back the stadium's naming rights from Enron, the energy company that went bankrupt in December.

28. 2002A foosball table sits among hudreds of chairs in a warehouse as they are prepared for auction Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2002 in Houston. Over 10,000 items from Enron will be auctioned next week.

29. 2002Enron Corp. executive Sherron Watkins is sworn in on Capitol Hill in a Thursday, Feb. 14, 2002, prior to testfying before a House Commerce subcommitte hearing on Enron. Watkins told the subcommittee that the chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, wanted her fired and her computer seized after she warned then-Chairman Kenneth Lay last summer that investors were being misled by inflated profit statements.

30. 2002

31. 2003Roy Rinard, 54, a troubleshooter and lineman for Portland General Electric, in a substation in Welches. Rinard, whose Enron stock dropped from $475,000 to $2,800 due to the accounting scandal, believes that he will have to work until the day that he dies.

32. 2004Former Enron CEO Jeff SKilling, center, arrives at the federal courthouse in handcuffs Thursday, Feb. 19, 2004 in Houston. Skilling turned himself in at FBI headquarters in Houston Thursday morning and was then taken to the courthouse.

33. 2004Former Enron CEO Ken Lay is escorted in handcuffs by federal agents into the Bob Casey Federal Courts Building after surrendering to authorities in Houston, Texas. July 8th, 2004

34. 2006Exterior of the Enron Headquarters on 1500 Louisiania Street, in Houston.

35. 2006Prosecution witness Kenneth Rice, left, former head of Enron's broadband unit, and former Enron executives Jeffrey Skilling, center, and Kenneth Lay listen to audio tapes in this artists' rendering Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006 in Houston.

36. 2006Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling pauses for a moment as he talks to reporters outside the federal courthouse after being sentenced in Houston, October 23, 2006. Former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced Monday to 24 years and four months in prison in the case that arose from the energy trading giant's collapse.

37. 2006Former Enron Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Andrew Fastow leaves the federal courthouse in shackles. Fastow, who testified against his former bosses, former Enron Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder Ken Lay and CEO Jeffrey Skilling, received a six-year sentence.

38. 2006Former Enron founder and CEO Ken Lay addresses the media outside the federal courthouse following the jury's ruling. The jury found Lay guilty on all six counts against him. May 25, 2006

39. 2006A guest holds the program for a second memorial service for Enron CEO and founder Ken Lay. Lay, 64, who died last week of heart failure while vacationing in Aspen, Colorado was convicted for fraud and conspiracy. July 12 2006.

40. 2006Former President George Bush waves as he arrives at the First United Methodist Church for a second memorial service for Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay Wednesday, July 12, 2006, in Houston. Lay, 64, died July 5 while vacationing in Aspen, Colo.

42. 2010ENRON - Broadway