Created on Wednesday, 25 March 2009 18:44

The meteoric rise and stunning collapse of Enron caused many to question, why the corporate oversight system that was supposed to protect investors failed to sound any alarms about the company’s dubious finances.

But Enron and Arthur Andersen turn out to be merely the tip of the iceberg. In the 1990s, more than 700 U.S. companies were forced to correct misleading financial statements as a result of accounting failures, lapses and outright fraud. Together with Enron — the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history — these failures have cost investors an estimated $200 billion.