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Enron Corp. - University of California | Office of The President

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earnings and separately disclosed in the footnotes. Mark-to-market accounting was used by <strong>Enron</strong><br />

to recognize the present value <strong>of</strong> a five-year contract as earnings in a single quarter. Mark-to-market<br />

accounting is allowed only where contract revenue streams are predictable and based on historical<br />

records <strong>of</strong> similar transactions. However, the <strong>Enron</strong> Defendants knew there was no historical track<br />

record for many <strong>of</strong> the transactions to which <strong>Enron</strong> applied mark-to-market accounting.<br />

535. For example, <strong>Enron</strong> improperly stretched mark-to-market past the limit by<br />

inappropriately applying it to transactions like broadband transactions and its retail/commercial<br />

energy demand-side management ("DSM") contracts. DSM contracts bundled various energy-related<br />

products and services to customers, including providing power and equipment commodities, and<br />

management and consulting services related to a customer's usage <strong>of</strong> power. While mark-to-market<br />

accounting is appropriate under certain circumstances for long-term contracts where the resulting<br />

revenue over time is predictable based on a historical record <strong>of</strong> similar transactions, as in straight<br />

commodity transactions such as oil and gas, it was not appropriate for <strong>Enron</strong>'s DSM and broadband<br />

contracts. Mark-to-market accounting was inappropriate as no historical track record existed for<br />

these deals from which the Company could determine how much <strong>of</strong> the contract revenue was likely<br />

to be recovered over the life <strong>of</strong> the contract, and the contracts were highly speculative, with<br />

indeterminate outcomes. Accordingly, it was unreasonable to book significant amounts <strong>of</strong> the<br />

revenue up-front rather than over time. Additionally, mark-to-market accounting <strong>of</strong> <strong>Enron</strong>'s DSM<br />

contracts was improper because most <strong>of</strong> the expected revenues were attributable to long-term<br />

services to be provided by <strong>Enron</strong> (normally booked over time, using the accrual accounting method),<br />

with only a small portion attributable to the commodity components for which mark-to-market rules<br />

could potentially apply.<br />

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