FASTOW RESEARCH

Andrew Stuart Fastow

Fastow was born on December 22nd, 1961, Washington D.C into a middle class jewish family, he was the second of three sons (middle child syndrome, feelings of exclusion?) his parents both working in retail and merchandising. In high school he played on the tennis team, took part in student government, and performed in he school band on the trombone. He went on to be educated at Tufts University (B.A. in Economics and Chinese.) and then Northwestern University (B.A. Finance)

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"He's probably not the most genuine character in the world... he has a smile, but it's more of a tool. something to help him get to where he wanted to get" 

- One of Andys high school teachers

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"He always hung out with nerdy brainy types but he was good-looking, so he wasn't totally nerdy. He was always smiling" - Lori Cattano fellow graduate 1980

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Both Andrew and his wife attended congregation at a conservative synagogue in Houston where he taught at a Hebrew School.

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Senior Director - Continental Bank NA - June 1984 - November 1990 (6 years and 6 months)

Whilst at Continental illinois he worked on the newly emerging "asset-backed securities" which "moves assets off of a bank's balance sheet while creating revenue" became popular practise 

It was this very work that then got him hired by Jeffrey Skilling at the Enron Finance Corp. before being names Chief Financial Officer in 1998.

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Chief Financial Officer - Enron Corp. - December 1990 - October 2001 (10 years and 11 Months)

Americas deregulation of energy in the late 90s gifted Enron with trade opportunities to buy energy cheap and sell it in a market with fluctuating prices hence varying degrees losses and gains. Andrew Fastow knew the market well and presented an idea that caught both Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lays attention. They were concerned about Enrons "stock price up" and keeping perception up despite the true financial state of the company. (an unholy partnership)

Fastow spun a web of complex companies/entities that only did business with Enron raising money for the company and hiding expansive losses on the quarterly balance sheets. (The Asshole) This tactic made Enrons balance sheet appear debt free when in reality it owed 30 Billion dollars at the height of its debt. (Andys Lair of LJM) 

What Fastow did wrong

Fastow profited personally off of this tactic whilst defrauding shareholders of millions.
He ignored basic financial practices such as reporting "cash in hand" and total liabilities.

...but all of it was technically legal and approved by his advisors

Fastows tactic was so effective in hiding company losses that a year before Enron declared bankruptcy their stock rose to an all time high of $90 before it eventually dropped to 40 cents but not before employees had been told to invest their retirement savings in Enron Stock.

Fastow documenting the banks participation in Enron fraud

On the 31st of October, 2002, Fastow was charged on 78 counts including fraud, money laundering and conspiracy and on January 14th, 2004 he pleads guilty on two counts of wire and securities fraud serving 10 years in prison. He also agreed to become an informant in the prosecution of other Enron execs reducing his sentence to six years being released on the 18th of May 2011. His wife Lea Fastow (formerly Weingarten) worked for Enron as an assistant treasurer and served brief jail time after the fall of Enron.

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"I saw him belittle people at large meetings. He might say something like: 'I can't believe someone could get a job here at Enron and not understand that.' There were a lot of people who hated him" - former Enron executive 

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"The government is making an example out of him" 
(FOX news report on the conviction of Fastow)

Litigation Support - Smyser Kaplan Veselka LLP - May 2011- Present
Public Speaking (Ethics) - 2012 - Present

Following his release Fastow worked as a review clerk for this law firm in Houston and began speaking to industry professionals and undergraduates, he's now credited and approved for lectures on CPE and CLE Ethics. I watched one of these lectures here.

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Andy Fastow - Business Ethics

Notes

-Voice-
he has a slight lisp
his consonants aren't articulated well meaning he tends to mumble
very monotone

-Context-
in 2000 CFO magazine named him CFO of the year for "off-balance sheet financing" which is now a term treated almost like swearing in the business world.
He was given labels such as "creative/innovative/forward thinking" for his idea
He holds up a prison id tag and his award stating that he got "both of these things for making the same deals"
He describes this area of operation as a grey area
He admits that he did wrong
The attorney for the shareholders told the judge not to blame Fastow and that the real problem is systemic, the prosecutor said we don't think mr fastow ever intended to break the law

-Important Quotes-
"Every deal i did at Enron was approved by accountants, attorneys and a board of director... it never crossed my mind that i was breaking the Law. I knew that what i was doing was misleading... but i didn't think i was breaking the law or doing something wrong"

"i looked at it like i have a rule book and people to tell me if i'm following the rule book so the only filter i had was 'am i following the rules'. If i had gone to trial it would have been a presentation of approved deals as defence, thats how i thought about things... I didn't think about if rules were moral or immoral, i saw them as a-moral... I didn't ask myself if it was right"

"there are a lot of rationalisations i used such as i'm helping the company, its only a small deal or that its systemic and if i didn't make the deal, someone else would and they'd have a competitive advantage over me. There'd be a new CFO the next day... I was rewarded and recognised, you get nice trophies you get big bonuses all of a sudden the secretaries smile at you, it was nice"

"It's common business practice, looking for technical ways to get around the principle (paying extra taxes)... i was essentially chief loophole officer at Enron and at the time i was proud of it"

"I complied with the rules but undermined the point of the rules"


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"He could be so charming when he wanted. He was good at raising funds for the company. That's how he rose to the top. But people said he had a dark side... very vindictive very unpredictable."

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Everything on this page informed my interpretation and portrayal of Fastow. It helped me to better understand his journey, the context of the play and all the businessy talky language that i read initially and skipped over. I'm able to understand Andys timeline of events if not the timelines of the play and make better informed judgements about his motivations. I may not have explicitly stated or communicated all of it or i may even choose ignore some of the reality but i'm now making a conscious decision rather missing something out of ignorance of the facts.

Looking back on the videos found during research wish i referred back to them a little for accuracy in my accent, it's a little more D.C. than the general American accent i performed in, stressing on vowels way more than i needed to making it sound more Californian.

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"Andy has the intelligence and youthful (irrational) exuberance (lol) to think in new ways. He deserves every accolade tossed his way." - Jeffrey Skilling