Tapes revealed that Enron shut down a power station in California and created an artificial power shortage, deliberately aggravating the 2001 California Energy Crisis, so they could raise prices and cost residents billions in surcharges.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2005/feb/05/enron.usnews

The tapes also show that Enron, whose bankruptcy three years ago was the biggest corporate scandal of recent times, manipulated energy markets in Canada and was planning to rig the Californian market even before deregulation in 1998, for which the Texan corporation actively campaigned.
The most damning revelations concern Enron’s secret role in creating artificial power shortages in California, helping to trigger an energy crisis in 2000 and 2001 which cost residents billions of dollars in surcharges.
The crisis ultimately led to the ousting of the state’s Democratic governor, Gray Davis, and paved the way for rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his place. Meanwhile, the shortages helped Enron to make $1.6bn (£850m).

This week, the federal energy regulatory commission recommended that the company return almost $1.7bn acquired from shady energy deals dating back to 1997.
Enron’s former chief executive, Kenneth Lay, an enthusiastic financial backer and friend of President Bush (to whom he was “Kenny Boy”), has been charged with fraud and is facing trial, along with two other company officials, in Houston in September.