A major player in the Enron financial scandal spoke Wednesday in 3650 Humanities to a nearly-full lecture hall.

Sherron Watkins is the former Vice President of the now bankrupt energy firm. It was Watkins who blew the whistle on Enron’s illegal trading practices.

The period leading to Enron’s demise was not the first time Watkins had worked inside a company with financial troubles. Her resume includes Arthur Anderson (which suffered accusations of fraud along with Enron) and M.G. Trade Finance Corp (which went bankrupt). Watkins worked at Enron from 1993 until its bankruptcy. She joked that she didn’t have the best list of references.

Watkins then talked about the transgressions committed by Enron. She briefly explained how Enron executives would “sell” parts of their own company to cover for losses. The accounting firm that took care of Enron’s expenses, Arthur Anderson, did not raise any flags in response to this illegal action. Instead, it merely asked for the approval of the company’s board of directors. Arthur Anderson willingly agreed to take part in this act, probably because Enron was its biggest client, contributing $1 million of business a week.

Watkins did little to mask her disgust for the current level of corporate responsibility and for its implications.

Her main sentiment, she said, was that large corporations in America are not concerned with morals. One solution proposed by Watkins was to change the nature of stockholders, increasing their interaction with the board of directors.

The government’s inaction prior to the scandal is what upset Watkins the most. She cited two specific examples, one in 1994, and another in 2000, when individuals tried to raise awareness of corporate America’s lack of ethics. She emphasized that when Arthur Levitt, current SEC chairman at the time, was threatened with the downsizing of his department, he told Congress that public accountants had lost their objectivity. That year alone, she said, 14 million dollars were donated to politicians from the accounting industry.

“If executives were angels, there would be no need for regulation,” Watkins said, quoting a Washington Post article.

Watkins wrapped up her speech with a question-and-answer session. When asked what could be done to prepare for similar situations and what could be done in business schools, Watkins said that the recent scandal had awakened students’ interests in business.

“We need more focus on principles,” Watkins said. “I am hopeful the right people will straighten this out.”