The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron - by Bethany McLean & Peter Elkind

This book by Fortune journalists chronicles Enron's meteoric ascent from energy innovator to 2001 corporate implosion, revealing how executives like Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling used mark-to-market accounting and off-balance-sheet tricks to fabricate profits. It exposes a culture of arrogance, fraud, and deregulation, influencing Sarbanes-Oxley reforms.