Ten years after energy giant Enron filed for bankruptcy, after dozens of arrests of top company executives, a journalist and a company representative recalled their experience of working through the Enron scandal of 2001.

Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, John R. Emshwiller, and former vice president of public relations for Enron, Karen Denne, sat at the same table Wednesday night to discuss one of the most infamous corporate scandals in American history.

Emshwiller was the journalist who wrote the Enron story that received global attention and a federal investigation. Denne served as an Enron spokesperson as details of the scandal emerged.

“Enron’s collapse happened ten years ago. At the time, it was absolutely unheard of that the seventh largest company in America could essentially evaporate,” said Denne during an event hosted by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Top Enron officials were manipulating the energy market in California during a time of deregulation by the government. Enron was deliberately overcharging customers in California while causing rolling blackouts and energy shortages. Leaders of the company hid financial loses and reported inaccurate numbers to investors, concealing millions in losses.

Emshwiller became interested in Enron after the CEO and cofounder, Jeffrey Skilling, “suddenly up and quit as the chief executive. People thought he would be the head of Enron for the next decade,” Emshwiller said.

The day before Skilling left, Emshwiller had been examining Enron’s SEC files and discovered “transactions involving hundreds of millions of dollars between Enron and unnamed entities being run by an unnamed senior executive.”

“That was the first moment when we stared thinking that this was an incredible conflict of interest, and we started to dig deeper,” Emshwiller said.

Denne was working in the public relations department of Enron when the company released figures suggesting that the cooperation had lost $600 million. She was working late at night the day before the report was to be released.

“Finally, word came down that the accountants had trouble signing off on numbers," Denne explained. "At about two or three in the morning, we talked about what would happen if we didn't have numbers to release in the morning. I remember at the time that there were sections in the press release that didn’t make sense, but I was just reassured that everything was fine.”

As the scandal progressed, Denne continued to work with executives in the company, many of whom did not even know the finances of the Enron.

“There was internal chaos and upper management didn't know what was going on. Nobody could answer the question: how much debt Enron had," Denne said.

According to Denne, the public relations department at Enron had less information than the media during the scandal. Top executives hid the truth from its employees and her department.

Emshwiller was a lead reporter on the case and he became disgusted when learning about the practices of the board of directors.

“They should have been on it everyday asking how much they were making. It was one of the most irresponsible things I have ever seen a board of directors do,” he said.

However, irresponsible fiscal practices was not all that company leadership was found guilty of doing. Tapes emerged that traders were purposely turning off equipment to cause blackouts in California to drive up energy prices.

“We had been assured that our trading team, by our top management, that we had done nothing wrong, and when we heard the tapes of the traders manipulating the markets, it basically made me sick,” Denne said.

Enron filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in December of 2011. Investors had lost billions with stocks falling from $90 a share to less than one dollar a share in over a year. At the time, Enron's bankruptcy was the largest in American history.

“The traders brought in kegs of beer and started partying, and employers started taking furniture. They wheeled their chairs out the doors. This was all filmed by the media,” Denne said.

“Were people hurt by Enron? Absolutely, I was one of them. My 401k was 100% Enron stock, and I lost all of it,” she added. “bBut the people who were involved in criminal activity are doing time.”