Pride goeth before the fall. This was as true in the biblical days as in the 21st century, when human avarice combined with a blinding sense of pride led Enron, one of the biggest energy companies of the time, into dissolution. The warning signs were there, even before the company lost a straggering $680 million in the third quarter of 2001. The tragedy of Enron was CFO Andrew Fastow, who used accounting gimmicks that allowed Enron to take on piles of debt, more than it ever should have, to play the markets. While the market was good, Enron was flying high; when it turned bad, the company and many of its investors were wiped out.

On this day, October 31, in 2002, a federal grand jury indicted Fastow on a total of 78 counts. He agreed to help the federal government in the prosecutions of other Enron employees involved in the scandal, and his sentence was reduced from ten to six years in prison.

Fastow enriched not only the company with his “special-purpose entities,” but also enriched himself. The SPEs were companies created for the sole purpose of doing businesses with Enron, as a way of hiding its debts and losses. At the same time, Fastow himself invested in these entities, making millions off them at the expense of his employer.