Due to this information and other allegations and investigations done by the SEC into Enron's financial statements causes its talks with Dynegy to fall apart. Enron was on the verge of selling itself to Dynegy for $8 billion. This would have been the only way to save the corporation and its executives from the subsequent downfall. Dynegy thought it too risky after the continuous occurrences, the investigation, the miss filings of statements, etc. Withdrawing their offer on Enron probably saved Dynegy as well. After the deal with Dynegy collapsed Enron was forced to file chapter 11 "to forestall payment on $31.2 billion in debt while it tries to reorganize its finances and revive its devastated energy trading business"(Behr). .
The real travesty of the whole situation came just before all of these corporate acquisitions and bankruptcies ever came about. The top executives of Enron knew that the company and its "large number of partnerships that kept billions of dollars of corporate debt off the company's books"(Behr and Morgan). Due to the overstated profits and hidden debts, the companies stock became over inflated. The executives sold off most of their shares in the company, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, before the scandal started to emerge. Once the scandal emerged the stock plummeted, 20 points in one day. Thousands of Enron employees had retirements, 401k's, and their futures riding on their stock in the company, however not able to sell the shares under corporate policy, all of the employees and retirees lost everything while the top executives made out like bandits. .
The bankruptcy of Enron led to many subpoenas amongst executives of Enron, Arthur Anderson (Enron's accounting firm and the largest in America), and further investigations into the paper shredding incident and how this happened in the first place. Many class action lawsuits have been filed against numerous companies.
