Robert E. Rubin, the former Treasury secretary and current vice chairman of Citigroup Inc., is portrayed in the latest Enron lawsuit as trying to protect the bank's extensive investments in Enron Corp. by orchestrating a bailout for the energy giant in the fall.
Mr. Rubin, who was lauded as one of the best Treasury secretaries in history when he left the Clinton administration in May 1999, first tried to get the Treasury Department to intervene in early November to prevent a devastating downgrade of Enron by Wall Street's credit-rating agencies.
His overture to Treasury Undersecretary Peter Fisher to mediate a creditor bailout, perhaps like the one Mr. Rubin and Mr. Fisher helped engineer for the failing Long Term Capital Management hedge fund in 1998, was spurned, Treasury officials said.
At the same time, Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill rebuffed a similar plea for intervention from Enron Chairman Kenneth L. Lay. Mr. Lay had cultivated a relationship with Mr. Rubin when he was at the Treasury and appears to have sought his assistance. Having failed in Washington, Mr. Rubin in late November tried to use his leverage on Wall Street to pressure the leading credit agency, Moody's Investors Service, not to downgrade Enron's rating to junk status, according to an amended complaint filed yesterday by thousands of Enron shareholders in the U.S. District Court in Houston.
.... The lawsuit contends that Mr. Rubin and Citigroup, with eight other Wall Street firms and two Enron law firms, had inside knowledge about Enron's questionable finances and colluded with the company to deceive investors to protect their billions of dollars of Enron investments. entire article
Sleaze, sleaze, sleaze. Is there anyone associated with Clinton who is not a complete sleaze?
Nope. I remember hearing an interview with the first Deputy Under Secretary of some agency, when Clinton first became President. This lady was quite outstanding in her field (I think it had something to do with environmentalism), and was thrilled to have the WH call for her resume. She applied, was cleared, and occupied the position. Pretty quick she noticed that only certain people had to have background checks, only certain categories of people who worked in some agencies had to sign a paper saying they wouldn't lobby for three years after they left the Clinton administration. She was one of the ones who signed everything, willingly, because she felt it was her privilege to work in the government. And then she found out that she had been hired solely because she was a woman and a minority. She said she promised she would stay for a year, she did, and left the day after her year anniversary.
She said she had believed Clinton when he said that he would clean up the government, and that it would be the most ethical government ever. I wish I could remember her name and position, but this interview was right after Clinton changed the law that one couldn't lobby for three years after leaving the government, back to one year. It wasn't sour grapes on her part either, she said she was on the 'fast' track toward a promotion, but wouldn't work for a lying president and sleazy bosses. It was quite an eye-opening interview from someone on the inside of the Clinton administration.