Decades After Its Collapse in Multibillion Dollar Fraud, Enron Shocks and Confuses With Announcement of Its Apparent Relaunch

Out of all the possible things to revive from the early 2000s, the return of boot-cut jeans was welcomed by many of my fellow Gen Xers, but no one — no one — was asking for this.

Enron is back.

Well, maybe.

It’s not entirely clear what exactly the company is planning, but an account labeled as “Enron” posted a one-minute video on Monday with a breezy montage of diverse people ending with an announcement that raised eyebrows across the internet.

It should perhaps be noted that Enron collapsed in a multibillion-dollar bankruptcy in late 2001 due to a massive fraud scheme that wiped out stockholders’ investments and employees’ pensions, led to the dissolution of its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, and resulted in multiple criminal convictions, including both the CEO at the time and his predecessor — several years before Twitter, now rebranded as X, launched in the summer of 2006. So this account, and its posts, all were created long after the original company was no longer in existence.

The @Enron account indicates it was launched in May 2024, links to enron.com, and declares itself to be the “World’s Leading Company™” — leading in what is not clear, although the website declares it is an “energy company” that is “proud” to be “center[ed] on exploring, expanding, and implementing bold new energy ideas to light a brighter path.” Enron.com was the domain previously used by the company; archived versions of the site dating back to 1998 can be viewed at the Internet Archive.

“The world is changing faster than ever. Can you feel it?” the video posted by @Enron begins. “Growth. Transformation. Rebirth.”

Short clips of a variety of people — a ballerina on a beach, a Black boxer, a protester with a shaved head hugging a police officer in riot gear, an old man in a wheelchair using a virtual-reality headset, an Asian couple looking fondly at an ultrasound image of their unborn child, a farmer standing in front of his crops — play as the narration continues, talking about themes like change, adaptation, and forgiveness.

“We’re here to lead by example,” the narrator intones as a flag emblazoned with the Enron logo appears on the screen.

“I am Enron,” the various people who appeared in the previous clips say, looking right at the camera, ending with the ballerina saying “We are Enron” as the camera zooms out to show people standing in a field to form the Enron logo.

“We’re Back. Can We Talk?” the video ends, then displays the website address.

The website teases “something very special” to be unveiled in eight days (that’s one more day than the cursed videotape in the 2002 horror thriller The Ring took to kill its victims, but I digress).

The @Enron account also posted a few more tweets, one declaring that it was the “final tweet in this thread” and “Any impersonators of Enron below this are a scam. Don’t click any links. Stay safe.”

Another tweet — which was deleted shortly before this article was published — claimed they had received “thousands of messages” and declared “We do not have any token or coin (yet). Stay tuned, we are excited to show you more soon.”

The website also has a “Company Store” tab that is peddling Enron logo merchandise like several $40 tee shirt designs, a $118 hoodie, and $5 stickers that declare “Enron: For Everyone” and “Enron: Power Turns Me On.” The “Careers” tab invites prospective employees to enter their email to apply for undefined “career opportunities,” along with a few profiles of people who are allegedly employees.

One of these profiles for “Malik,” Director of Sales, already got called out for using a photo that was found in several online stock photo galleries. @Enron replied, “Malik is a valued member of the Enron team and also has a successful modeling career which we support.”

Unsurprisingly, the overall reaction to the new posts from whatever this “Enron” is ranged from shock to confusion to mockery — and rampant speculation that this would turn out to be a crypto scam dressed up in the carcass of the former company.

The answer may lie in text in the fine print of the “Terms” section of the website that reads, “THE INFORMATION ON THE WEBSITE IS FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTED PARODY, REPRESENTS PERFORMANCE ART, AND IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY,” as highlighted by one commenter.

The general consensus still seems, parody or not, that a crypto scam of some sort is in the pipeline.

An official press release declaring that Enron was beginning “a new chapter, dedicated to solving the world’s energy challenges with innovation, adaptability, and a commitment to a brighter future” shed little light on the situation.

Enron also bought a full page ad in the Houston Chronicle, the city where the former company was headquartered with the same “We’re Back. Can We Talk?” messaging, along with a billboard.

From the Chronicle:

Thumbs twiddled: In billboard-afflicted Houston, it takes a lot to get drivers’ attention — but a sign on I-69 North, between Westpark and Chimney Rock, gobsmacked commuters. There, after all these years, was the old crooked-E logo of Enron, once Houston’s pride and joy. Then, of course, the move-fast-and-break-things high-tech conglomerate collapsed in a wave of scandal on November 28, 2001 — a breathtaking crash of a size never before seen in the U.S., and one that took many of its employees’ life savings with it. And now? “We’re back,” the billboard declares. “Let’s talk.” Smaller type lists a social account that doesn’t seem to have fired up yet. Obviously, it’s a bid for attention — but for what? The smartypantses on Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets floated a semi-serious theory: “Enron,” they cracked, would be a great name for a new cryptocurrency.