U.S. Congress Demands Documents, Files From Enron and Andersen Executives

Bloomberg ^ | William Roberts and Jeff Bliss

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Congress demanded documents and personal files from current and former officers and directors at Enron Corp. and its auditor, Arthur Andersen LLP, in an effort to find out what led to the biggest U.S. bankruptcy.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee asked for the personal files of David Duncan and five other Andersen partners involved in the audit of Enron, after Andersen said its employees had destroyed documents and e-mails, committee spokesman Ken Johnson said. The Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations subpoenaed papers from both Enron, once the biggest energy trader, and Andersen.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

"Campaign Contributions"

Nostrilitis can stick it up his nose, push his fingers as far into the mess as he likes, I hope he does. The members of the Bush administration have already stated publically that they knew no more than what we did, nothing. The fact remains that a few high horses rode off with the money bags in a very timely/questionable fashion. Now that doesn't scratch the Clinton "Let's Make A Plant" days.

[Wphile]

Waxman...to determine why the administration did nothing to protect shareholders and employees.

Such as what? Issue a warning, SELL!!!! Well, God darnit why didn't Bill Clinton tell me the NASDAQ was going to go from 5,000 to 1,600? Why didn't Bill Clinton tell me that the dot.commers were nothing but a shell, without any business model whatsoever, and that I shouldn't invest in them? Why didn't Bill Clinton tell me that his administration twisted arms and issued threats so Enron could build nasty power plants in India and Mozambique? Why didn't Bill tell me any of this? I am so disappointed.

What a frickin' joke this is and the press is so culpable in spreading this stupid story based on rumour and inuendo. I hate the press (have I said that before)?

[Asclepius]

``This debacle is so massive, it requires speed and thoroughness,'' said Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations. ``The subpoenas are necessary in order to get prompt and thorough review of the documents in question.''

Noise and smoke, all of it. The Clinton era taught us that Congressional subpoenas may be ignored with impunity. And Congressional investigations stonewalled indefinitely.

See what happens when you undermine the rule of law, Senator Levin?

[Howlin]

I'm hoping we see Bill Richardson's name pop up here somewhere.

[Wphile]

Bill Richardson

Good point. Hadn't thought about him. Hazel O'Leary also.

[VRWC For Truth]

The Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

AKA the Snipe Hunt

[bobhitejr]

Get serious. The Clintons look like saints compared to "Kenny Boy" and his cronies. The Bushies knew about these guys because that's how business gets done in Texas. The President now says that he barely knew "Mr. Lay." C'mon -- that a Clinton coverup. Open the gates, let's hear some truth about this ripoff of our economic security.

[grania]

Why didn't Bill Clinton tell me that the dot.commers were nothing but a shell, without any business model whatsoever, and that I shouldn't invest in them?

Bad comparison...most of the dotcoms had records that let any halfway intelligent person figure out that these companies had no value, no profits, silly ideas. In spite of that, people invested (greed). Anyone who invests in a company that doesn't have a positive P/E should consider the potential of losing their investment.

Enron execs were lying about the financial health of the corporation. The only possible problem the administration could have would involve knowing that.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

It all gets back to the simple fact that the conservatives cannot lead from a true point of strength until they wipe the egg of Impeachment off their faces. Clinton(s) must be proven guilty, justice must be served.

[angry elephant]

Get serious. The Clintons look like saints compared to "Kenny Boy" and his cronies. The Bushies knew about these guys because that's how business gets done in Texas. The President now says that he barely knew "Mr. Lay." C'mon -- that a Clinton coverup. Open the gates, let's hear some truth about this ripoff of our economic security.

Enron did so much better during the Klintoon years than they have since Bush came in, I think the Klintoons probably received far more than campaign contributions, i.e., massive kickbacks.

[Wphile]

I agree about the dotcoms. I was being sarcastic. And I agree that there is probably some white collar crime here with Enron and Arthur Anderson. That's what the investigation should be about. It shouldn't be about all this political stuff. Liebermann is suggesting that the Bush administration should maybe have alerted people about the demise based on the phone calls they received in late October. The phone calls were requests for help in securing more credit which were denied. Don't think anyone knew about the gross malfeasance. This should be a criminal investigation, not a political one.

[posterkid]

Waxman...to determine why the administration did nothing to protect shareholders and employees.

I'm really surprised nobody else has latched onto this line for what it is. If the Bush admin *had* done something the screaming and yelling from the Dems that there were favors being done and a quid pro quo would be deafening.

But since NOTHING was done... now it's "you hurt the people!"

Demoncraps have no souls.

[grania]

This should be a criminal investigation, not a political one.

Absolutely...destroying documents is over the top. As a little person, it seems that what this really means is that the big guys (either political party, corporations, governments at all levels) don't play fair. The average little person could be interested in a new attitude in government and corporate America, if there were such alternatives.

That's why neither political party will really want to change things.

[Wphile]

Actually, a good way to effect some real change would be to scrap the whole tax code and institute a flat tax on personal income only. Tax gross income. No deductions, no exceptions. Like Steve Forbes said, "you could do your taxes on a postcard." Eliminating the business tax would greatly reduce all the lobbying, etc. Not likely a politico is going to propose this, however.

[posterkid]

Why on income and not on what you spend? If interest received from savings is considered income, we will still be taxed multiple times on the same money. You'll also never gain a penny off the criminals out there making money in illegal enterprises. They don't tend to report that income.

(I agree with the flat tax... but not on income.)

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Clinton "persuaded" OPEC to raise prices in order to finance one of Russia's wars because he needed their help to fix his problems in Kosovo. He killed domestic production and created the huge dependency on OPEC - under Richardson these prices rose out of sight. It was that dependency on very high cost energy that created the bad market. The worthless market lead to recession. Then Bush took office. Yet who knows how much cash left the country to fund various DNC-Clinton/Chicom enterprises before we realized what what happening. We know the plants were built, and we are aware foreign trade/the Chicoms were under-bidding American business.

[Wphile]

National sales tax? Okay, I'd go along with that.

[posterkid]

Great thing is that it treats people and corporations equally, because corporations have their raw materials that need to be bought. It also gives us a great way to grow into the information economy, as the "products" we produce are the efforts of labor and intelligence that don't have raw materials to be bought, thus saving a lot of money and giving a REAL "tax incentive" to that sort of economic growth.

But, yeah, no electable politician will ever go for it. Oh well.

[Wphile]

We did have it in our county's platform and every now and then it seems to develop a bit of traction. Added bonus...we'd get rid of the IRS! The accountants (of which I am one) and tax lawyers would scream to high heaven too. I'm not very popular among CPAs when I bring it up.

[DugwayDuke]

"Such as what? Issue a warning, SELL!!!!"

Aren't these the same democrats who were having a cow about Bush "talking down" the markets? If the government had "warned" investors, then these guys would be blaming the government for the fall in the share price of Enron.