It was named after the Star Wars character Chewbacca, because it was created to hide losses from the Joint Energy Development Investment Limited, known by its acronym "JEDI".
Additionally, as investors became more wary of Chewco, Michael Kopper, an Enron employee who reported to CFO Andrew Fastow, took over the titular management role and was used to hide actual ownership.
[1][2] Over the course of three years, Kopper received between $1.5 and $2 million in management fees from Chewco, some of which was kicked back to Fastow in the form of checks written to members of his family.
According to the report of the investigative committee chaired by William Powers Jr., Kopper did little actual work, aside from time spent manipulating the books.
In November 2001, accountants Arthur Andersen discovered a two-page letter detailing a side deal in which Enron put up cash collateral to ostensibly give Chewco the outside equity it required for SPE status.