Ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you today to pay tribute to the valiant Sherron Watkins, Vice President of Corporate Development at the Enron Corporation. A lady of unquestionable fortitude, she was called upon to bear witness before the esteemed committees of the United States House of Representatives and the Senate, at the beginning of the year 2002. The primary subject of her testimony was the dire warning she had delivered to none other than Kenneth Lay, then-CEO of Enron, concerning the egregious accounting irregularities that marred the company’s financial statements.
It is a grievous oversight that this monumental scandal could have been averted much earlier had the voice of reason, such as Ms. Watkins, been heeded in time. Her actions serve as a stark reminder of the importance of integrity and transparency in the corridors of power, lest we find ourselves engulfed by the shadows of deceit and corruption.
We owe it to her memory, and to the countless citizens who were defrauded by Enron’s fraudulent practices, that we stand united in our condemnation of this heinous act.