Who was Andrew Fastow at Enron?
Andrew Fastow was a key executive at Enron who rose to become the companyâs chief financial officer. In this role, he oversaw the financing of the corporation through increasingly complex financial instruments.1
Fastow played a central role in the accounting fraud that led to the company's collapse by managing special purpose entities (SPEs). While Enron used these limited partnerships to hide troubled assets and keep them off the company's books, Fastow personally ran some of these entities, creating a significant conflict of interest.1
Following the exposure of these dubious accounting practices and the subsequent investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Fastow was fired. He later pleaded guilty to charges related to the scandal in 2006 and was sentenced to six years in prison, eventually being released in 2011.1