Enron Probe Crosses Many Political Borders

A harsh anniversary for you.

I work on what are called "legacy command and control systems," which is a fancy way of saying "they ain't the hippest, coolest, flashiest things around, but they are what does the job today."
Another way to say it is TCR (Telemetry, Commanding and Ranging)

Hell, yeah. You ain't whistlin' Dixie.

I was in DC 9/11 for a meeting with Navy communications folks--I was in Crystal City, just a couple miles down Jeff Davis Highway from the Pentagon.

The meeting started well, but after the planes hit the WTC and the Pentagon, we were just completely in shock. I was frantic to call my wife in San Diego--I just wanted her to know I was OK. (She already knew it, but I didn't KNOW that she knew it.) I saw the Pentagon itself on Friday morning (I was going to another meeting), and the pictures just don't do it justice--the damage looks small, but it's a HUGE building, so the damaged area is REALLY big. Found out that day that some folks I'd worked with on Y2K and some other efforts were in the Navy's command center, and didn't get out.

I flew in through Reagan, so there was no way I was going to get a flight out from there, so I got a new flight from Dulles. I was supposed to leave that Saturday (9/15), but the Delta gate rep at Dulles had a nervous breakdown (not that I blame her--the line for the Delta counter was half a mile long!), and I wound up missing my flight (it went to Atlanta COMPLETELY EMPTY).

In the end, I wound up renting a car (the earliest I could get a seat for a flight was 9/18, and that was standby only--no reservations available until 9/21). Hertz then says, "Sir, we can't give you the four-door we promised your travel agent...uh, would you accept a Mustang GT convertible? It has a CD player..."

My response: "Oh, hurt me, hurt me."

Drove through Virginia to Tennessee, then took the I-40 west. Stayed in really cheap motels.(One place in Oklahoma charged only $19 for a room. Amazingly clean, too.) Got home the day I would've left DC if I'd been lucky. And it cost Uncle Sam about half as much as a one-way plane ticket plus a few days in the hotel would. A win-win, I say.

This stuff is more for message traffic than for TCR work. Some of it feeds stuff like the Global Command and Control System-Maritime (GCCS-M) with pro forma messages that the GCCS-M (pronounced "Geeks-Em") software uses to update its situation display.

So where are you going with all of this?
Do you want a pat on the back? You just suddenly wanted to be "friendly" and disclose these personal details that could have been done in mail? I don't understand. As usual, your motivation eludes me.

Well, let's put it this way, guys. I doubt that when Enron folded that
it was much of a surprise to the biggest players on Wall Street.

A FR thread supporting that fact was up a few days ago.

This mockery of icons Ken and Barbie smacks of intrigue--perhaps even anti-americanism. Can the Homeland truly be considered secure with such impudence openly--even gleefully--shown?

Ping!

I just decided to post it for all to see. Feel free to do what you want with it.

At any rate, back to the main topic...consulting and accounting for the same client just do not work together. AA has really screwed the pooch on this one.

Thanks for the flag Black Jade. Very good information here, including Poohbah's member date. Since Poohbah was effective as a member of the _Jim, Fred25, Redwine, etc. crowd, the date is certainly coincidental,but interesting none the less.

These guys spent many hours distracting people working on the OKC bombing, particularly the role people other than McVeigh and Nichols played in OKC. The goal of the work was to prevent another OKC by raising public awareness of the participants in the bombing still at large, in particular John Doe II, as well as others.

Now we know the same terrorist network responsible for 9-11 played a role in OKC.
Wolfowitz has gone public with the McVeigh-Iraqi connection and Schippers is doing all he can to get Ashcroft to look at the work of the Middle Eastern connection developed by Jayna Davis. Stephen Jones presented a compelling case linking Nichols to Yousef. I wonder if there are any regrets for the member since 9-11-98?

Senate To Subpoena Enron’s Lay

Former CEO Resigns From Enron Board

Sixteen hours before he was to testify under oath, former Enron CEO Ken Lay abruptly cancels his plans to testify before a Senate committee. NBC News correspondent Lisa Myers reports.

MSNBC
By Brock N. Meeks
February 4, 2002

On the same day that he was supposed to testify before two congressional committees, former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay resigned Monday from Enron Corp.’s board of directors. Lay, who also faces a subpoena to appear before the committees about the Enron debacle, had quit as the energy firm’s chairman and chief executive on Jan. 23.

IN A STATEMENT, Lay said, “I want to see Enron survive and successfully emerge from reorganization. Due to the multiple inquiries and investigations, some of which are focused on me personally, I believe that my involvement has become a distraction to achieving this goal.”

Lay had been scheduled to appear at congressional hearings this week, but his attorney, Earl Silbert, advised Lay to cancel those appearances after several members of Congress appeared on Sunday news shows accusing Lay and other Enron executives of committing crimes.

“I have instructed Mr. Lay to withdraw his prior acceptance of your invitation,” Silbert wrote to the committee chairmen.

With Lay a no show in Washington, Sen. Byron Dorgan, (D-N.D.) said the Senate Commerce Committee will issue a subpoena to compel the former Enron CEO to appear before the panel.

Committees in the House also are working on issuing a subpoena to force Lay to appear, sources told MSNBC.com.

The Senate Commerce Committee, which was to hear Lay’s testimony Monday morning, met behind closed doors to discuss issuing the reluctant CEO a subpoena.

“We decided that we have really had no choice but to issue a subpoena to require his attendance,” Dorgan said, “and we will do that tomorrow at a meeting of the full committee.”

The Enron issue “has so many tentacles it’s very hard to figure out where to stop and start,” Dorgan said. “There are so many questions and we wanted to start with the chairman and CEO Mr. Lay to ask him, what happened, what do you know of what happened and who is accountable and who’s responsible. I regret that we weren’t given that choice.”

DIGGING FOR DETAILS

Rep. James Greenwood, (R-Pa.), insisted that the hearings aren’t about Lay. “It’s about the 4,000 people that “lost their livelihoods, lost their 401(k)s,” Greenwood told CNBC. Lay and other Enron executives “need to step up to the microphone and say ‘this is what happened, this is the good, the bad and the ugly and make a clean breast of it,” said Greenwood, who chairs the House Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee.

Officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the Senate Commerce Committee would convene Tuesday morning — 24 hours after Lay had been scheduled to testify on the largest bankruptcy in the nation’s history.

But even under subpoena, , which protects from self-incrimination.

Other key ex-Enron employees are expected on Capitol Hill this week, including former CFO Andrew Fastow. Many of the off-the-books partnerships, in which Enron hid its massive debt from investors and Wall Street, are believed to be the brainchild of Fastow.

“He (Fastow) seems to be the one with the most explaining to do,” Greenwood said.

ALL SCANDAL IS POLITICAL

The Bush administration is tainted by the Enron scandal, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest Hollings, (D-S.C.), said during a Monday news conference to announce the pending subpoena of Lay.

“We’ve got an Enron government,” Hollings said, proceeding to read a laundry list of Bush administration political appointments that have ties to Enron. Hollings also took advantage of the opportunity to attack the easy flow of campaign finance contributions as one of the problems that allowed Enron and its executives to buy access to politicians at the highest levels.

And as a parting shot, Hollings suggested that a special prosecutor was needed to delve into the Enron scandal because the Justice Department under Bush couldn’t be relied on to carry out an objective investigation.

However, the Justice Department rebuffed Hollings’ suggestion of a special prosecutor, saying there’s “no reason to appoint a special counsel to investigate the Enron matter.” The DOJ said that regulations call for such an appointment only when there would be a conflict of interest and serve the public interest.

“Neither of these criteria exist for the Department of Justice in this case,” the Justice official said. “No [Justice Department] person involved in pursuing this investigation has any conflict, or any ties that would require a recusal.”

Meanwhile, the House Capital Markets subcommittee opened proceedings Monday by approving a motion giving its chairman, Rep. Richard Barker, (R-La.), the power to seek a subpoena against Lay, who also was to testify before Barker’s subcommittee before bowing out on Sunday.

Enron’s “misrepresentations, obfuscation and acts of secrecy” have created “a crisis of confidence” in corporate America, Barker said in his opening remarks. While ranking minority member Paul Kanjorski, (D-Pa.), said more oversight of the accounting industry is sorely needed, noting that “the current oversight resembles a Rube Goldberg regime.”

We are on the threshold of new regulatory rules,” Securities and Exchange Commission Harvey Pitt told the House panel Monday. To that end, “We will hold our first ever investors summit this May,” Pitt said, in order to get input on how to make the issue of financial disclosure more transparent and easier to understand.

Asked if there are “other Enrons” scattered throughout the corporate landscape that also are hidden by complex and murky financials disclosure statements just waiting to be de-cloaked, Pitt said there’s no way to “give you the assurances you seek.”

Instead, Pitt said it is “my hope” that other Enron’s are “out there, but I am not willing to take the chance and rely on hope.” The SEC is currently “investigating a number of situations,” Pitt said, “and we want to change the rules so we are satisfied that there are no other Enrons out there.”

In testimony prepared for the House panel, William C. Powers, the dean of the University of Texas Law School, said his investigation into Enron’s activities found “a systematic and pervasive attempt by Enron’s management to misrepresent the company’s financial condition.”

Powers summarized his report, released over the weekend, and told lawmakers, “there’s no question that virtually everyone from the board of directors down” understood that Enron’s use of its partnerships was to “offset its investment losses with its own stock.”

There was a “default of leadership and management” that began at the top, including Lay and former Enron chief operating officer Jeff Skilling, while Enron’s board of directors “failed ... to provide leadership and oversight.”

REPORT DRAWS HARSH WORDS

An Enron internal inquiry released on Saturday said the company inflated its profits by nearly $1 billion and top employees took in millions of dollars “they should never have received” through complex partnerships that played a major role in the company’s collapse.

The results of that Enron investigation released over the weekend were damning and served to fuel the Sunday political talk shows. Lawmakers drew the long knives and wasted no time making their feelings known about the report’s findings.

Sen. Dorgan called Enron “almost a culture of corporate corruption.” Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., asked whether “maybe somebody ought to go to the pokey for this.”

In the aftermath of such verbal blood-letting, it was almost predictable that Lay would bail on his commitment to appear before Congress Monday.

In the face of such withering commentary, Lay’s attorney wrote in his letter to the committee chairmen that the embattled former CEO “firmly rejected any allegations that he engaged in wrongful or criminal conduct.”

On Monday the heat turned up a notch as staffers began drafting subpoenas.

“Even if he takes the Fifth, and that’s exactly what we expect, we’re going to make him show his face to the American people,” a congressional aide told MSNBC.com.

Enron’s internal report “confirms my initial impression that Enron was essentially operating, this is my opinion, a gigantic pyramid scheme or shell game within the confines of a publicly traded company,” Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., told CNBC on Monday.

Fitzgerald, as a former lawyer for a bank holding company, has special insight into the financial debacle caused by Enron’s collapse.

“The company was transferring assets back and forth between partnerships,” Fitzgerald said. “At one end the company would book a gain, at the other end there would be initially a loss at the partnership, but then the partnership would transfer it back to Enron, then the partnership would book a gain in a different quarter,” Fitzgerald said, paraphrasing the findings of the company’s internal investigation.

“This is an elaborate hoax in my judgment and how this was allowed to go on with a publicly traded company and how… it broke through all our defenses and finally how the SEC didn’t detect it is what we’ve got to figure out,” Fitzgerald said.

ROCKY WEEK AHEAD

Fastow and one of his lieutenants at Enron, Michael Kopper, are expected to show up later this week to testify, but congressional aides said they are expected to take the Fifth Amendment, too. However, Jeffrey Skilling, another former Enron CEO is expected to testify before the House Oversight subcommittee on Thursday.

Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., is expected to drop a few bombshells of his own during hearings later in the week.

He told NBC’s Meet the Press that his own committee’s investigation tracked what was showing up in Enron’s report.

“Not only were there corrupt practices,” Tauzin said. “Not only was there hiding of the fact that debt was being put off the balance sheets and profits that were reported that didn’t exist, but we’re finding more than that...what may clearly end up being securities fraud.”

“Officers all the way to the board of directors have some responsibility,” Tauzin said, adding the report even mentioned Ken Lay, the former Enron chairman.

Houston-based Enron, once the seventh-largest company in America, collapsed in a cloud of debt and questions about its finances and accounting practices. It is under investigation by nine congressional committees, the Justice and Labor departments and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“The tragic consequences of the related-party transactions and accounting errors were the result of many failures at many levels and by many people,” Enron’s internal study says. “A flawed idea, self-enrichment by employees, inadequately designed controls, poor implementation, inattentive oversight, simple (and not-so-simple) accounting mistakes, and overreaching in a culture that appears to have encouraged pushing the limits.”

The report’s author, Enron Director William Powers, is among those scheduled to testify before Congress in the coming week.

ANDERSEN HIRES VOLCKER

Meanwhile, Andersen, the accounting firm that was Enron’s auditor for nine years, challenged the review and called it “extremely self-serving” through a spokesman.

“The authors of this report, whose independence has already been questioned, were hand-picked by Enron’s board,” said Andersen spokesman Charlie Leonard.

The accounting firm, under fire for how it handled its oversight of Enron’s finances, announced on Sunday it had hired former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to help restore its credibility. The firm also said it would no longer offer some consulting services to some clients.

“This is not about window-washing or eye-washing,” Andersen Chief Executive Joseph Berardino told reporters at a news conference. “This is not where a report comes in a month later that says nothing. This is about getting answers to what the American public needs from an auditing firm.”

Dow Plummets 220, Nasdaq 56

THE MOB ON WALL STREET

"Not only were there corrupt practices,” Tauzin said. “Not only was there hiding of the fact that debt was being put off the balance sheets and profits that were reported that didn’t exist, but we’re finding more than that...what may clearly end up being securities fraud.”

We know what happens to people that commit securities fraud. Nothing.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Records - George W. Bush Disregarded Federal Statutes

Text of Letter of Ex-Enron Chief Kenneth Lay
"Mr. Lay firmly rejects any allegations that he engaged in wrongful or criminal conduct."

'Enronitis' Sweeps Through Wall Street

The Telegraph
By Simon English
Source
February 5, 2002

WALL Street caught "Enronitis" yesterday, sending shares tumbling on fears that the profits claimed by some of corporate America's biggest players are based on little more than creative accounting.

The sell-off began after claims that Tyco International, the conglomerate that has announced plans to split into four, spent $8 billion in the last three years on acquisitions that were not fully disclosed. Tyco shares fell $4.51 to $32.35 after it admitted to buying more than 700 companies without issuing press releases.

The company said the deals were too small to be considered "material" for a company with revenue of $36 billion and said the concern from investors was little more than "a sign of the extraordinary times".

Tyco did not break any rules, it appears, but since Enron's demise any hint of hidden deals causes panic. The Dow Jones index of America's top 30 stocks fell 183 points in morning trading to 9724. Investor cynicism spread to the Nasdaq, down 46 at 1864.

The bug is spreading to some of America's most respected businesses. General Electric shares fell nearly 5pc, $1.67, to $35.18, on fears that its vast size and complexity make its exact financial position difficult to measure.

The accountancy scandal that is gripping American business shows no signs of easing. Global Crossing, the telecoms company once valued at $50 billion that filed for bankruptcy protection last week, is now facing an investigation by the Securities & Exchange Commission into its accounting practices.

It emerged last week that a former executive alleged in August that the company was inflating profits. Global Crossing, like Enron, was audited by Andersen. Kmart, the discount retailer that joined the growing list of American bankrupts last month, is also facing questions about the accuracy of its financial statements.

A week of congressional hearings kicked off yesterday as Congress attempts to discover how Enron collapsed. Former chairman Kenneth Lay is being subpoenaed after refusing to testify at the last minute because of the "prosecutorial" climate.

He may seek some kind of immunity before agreeing to give evidence, but is unlikely to get it. Politicians want to see Enron executives in jail and are pushing for criminal charges to be brought. They have dubbed Enron "a giant pyramid scheme" and are openly alleging fraud.

Jeffrey Skilling, the chief executive who suddenly quit last summer citing "personal reasons", still intends to give evidence to a house committee on Thursday, his spokesman said.

He will be joined by former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow and former chief accounting officer Richard Causey. Mr Fastow was strongly criticised in a 203-page report into the company's collapse. He will plead the Fifth Amendment, protecting him from having to answer any questions until there is a trial.

The report, written by Texas law professor William Powers at Enron's request, was attacked by Andersen's global managing partner C E Andrews as "self-serving", fitting "Enron's established pattern of attempting to shift blame to others".

American trade union the AFL-CIO asked the SEC to ban Enron directors from serving on other company boards, arguing that they are "substantially unfit" to do so.

Another Enron development saw some bad news for creditors of Enron's European arm. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the administrators, said Enron Europe has "billions of dollars" in liabilities but would not give an exact figure.

This revelation suggests that UK and European banks and energy traders may have a much greater exposure to America's biggest business failure than they have so far admitted.

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002.

Angry lawmakers to subpoena Lay

Whereabouts of Enron's Lay a Mystery -House panel

Reuters
Monday February 4, 9:15 pm Eastern Time

Whereabouts of Enron's Lay a mystery -House panel WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - A congressional committee trying to serve a subpoena on former Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay said on Monday his personal attorney does not know where Lay is and could not accept the subpoena.

``We made contact with Mr. Lay's attorney this afternoon ... He tells us he does not know of Lay's whereabouts, which we find quite puzzling to say the least,'' said Peggy Peterson, spokeswoman for the House Financial Services Committee.

Earl Silbert, Lay's attorney, was unavailable for comment. A woman answering the phone at his home said he was ill.

Lay resigned from the board of the fallen energy trading giant on Monday as two congressional committees vowed to force him to come before them to testify on Enron's collapse.

Enron Journal: Never Underestimate the Power of Greed

TheStreet.com
By Christopher Edmonds
Source
February 3, 2002

On the eve of former CEO Kenneth Lay's scheduled testimony before congressional committees, a report by three independent members of Enron's (ENRNQ:OTC BB - news - commentary - research - analysis) board paints a dark picture of corporate deceit, a culture of arrogance and a tangled web of executives who sought personal riches at investors' expense.

But Lay won't be letting Congress in on what he knows just yet, as he indicated through his attorney Sunday night that he wouldn't be testifying Monday as previously agreed. Through his attorney, Earl Silbert, Lay informed key congressmen that he'd be absent from Monday's hearings. The letter from Silbert indicated his client would "withdraw his prior acceptance of your invitation" in light of "inflammatory statements" from certain members of Congress. It also claimed it would be unfair for Lay to testify as "conclusions have been reached before Mr. Lay has been given an opportunity to be heard."

However, the internal investigative report, released Saturday, makes accusations that are much more troubling than previously revealed.

"Our investigation identified significant problems beyond those Enron has already disclosed," reads the report prepared by William C. Powers Jr., dean of the University of Texas School of Law, and two other outside directors, Raymond S. Troubh and Herbert S. Winokur.

Their report concludes that most of Enron's troubles were brought about by self-serving deceit. "The tragic consequences of the related-party transactions and accounting errors were the result of failures at many levels and by many people," the report states. It was caused by "a flawed idea, self-enrichment by employees, inadequately designed controls, poor implementation, inattentive oversight, simple (and not-so-simple) accounting mistakes and overreaching in a culture that appears to have encouraged pushing the limits. Our review indicates that many of those consequences could and should have been avoided."

Who Benefited?

The investigation's most damning finding is that these tactics appear intended to enrich a group of high-rolling insiders at the expense of employees and shareholders.

"Enron employees involved in the partnerships were enriched, in the aggregate, by tens of millions of dollars they should have never received -- [former CFO Andrew] Fastow by at least $30 million, [another executive, Michael J.] Kopper by at least $10 million, two others by $1 million each, and still two more by amounts we believe were at least in the hundreds of thousands of dollars," the report notes. "These benefits came at Enron's expense."

The report details a plethora of self-dealing that involved Fastow and other senior managers. In fact, the report outlines how Fastow apparently created a partnership to reward Enron employees for their involvement in previous misdeeds.

"These investments, in a partnership called 'Southampton Place,' provided spectacular returns," the report notes. "In exchange for a $25,000 investment, Fastow received ... $4.5 million in approximately two months. Two other employees, who each invested $5,800, each received $1 million in the same time period. We have seen no evidence that Fastow or any of these employees obtained clearance for those investments, as required by Enron's Code of Conduct."

The report largely blames the former CFO. "What [Fastow] presented as an arrangement intended to benefit Enron became, over time, a means of both enriching himself personally and facilitating manipulation of Enron's financial statements," the report concludes. "The evidence suggests that he placed his own personal interests ... ahead of Enron's interests."

Yet the investigation places plenty of blame on Lay and former CEO Jeff Skilling for their knowledge and actions and, in Lay's case, his apparent uninterest or ignorance.

Authors of the report refer to Lay as "captain of the ship," noting that he should have known about Fastow's chicanery and used his authority to extinguish it. "As CEO, [Lay] had the ultimate responsibility for taking reasonable steps to ensure that the officers reporting to him performed their oversight duties properly," the report states. "He does not appear to have directed their attention, or his own, to the oversight of the LJM partnerships. Ultimately, a large measure of the responsibility rests with the CEO."

While the report notes that Lay delegated much of the day-to-day operations to Skilling during the LJM transactions, it concludes that he was familiar with Fastow's antics, something Lay disputes. "Lay approved the arrangements under which Enron permitted Fastow to engage in related-party transactions with Enron," the report states. "He bears significant responsibility for those flawed decisions as well as for Enron's failure to implement sufficiently rigorous procedural controls to prevent the abuses that flowed from this inherent conflict of interest."

As for Skilling, who abruptly resigned as Enron's CEO in August, the investigation suggests he encouraged Fastow's actions, which is ironic given Skilling's image as a procedure fanatic.

"Skilling, who prides himself on the controls he put in place in many areas at Enron, bears substantial responsibility for the failure of the system of internal controls put in place to mitigate the risk inherent in the relationship between Enron and the LJM partnerships," the report notes. "Although Skilling denies it, if the account of other Enron employees is accurate, Skilling both approved a transaction that was designed to conceal substantial losses in Enron's merchant investments and withheld from the Board important information about that transaction."

All of this occurred as Skilling, Lay, Fastow and other insiders benefited from the sale of tens of thousands of shares of Enron common stock each month.

But the board also pointed a finger at itself: " [T] he Board of Directors failed, in our judgment, in its oversight duties. This had serious consequences for Enron, its employees and its shareholders." The report is especially critical of the audit and compliance committees, which should have been "more aggressive and vigilant" in their oversight. Winokur, a member of Enron's board and its finance committee during the period in question, did not participate in writing that portion of the investigative report.

Accounting for Outside Advice

While this latest report focuses primarily on how Enron crumbled from the inside, it also takes critical shots at outsiders: accountants, attorneys and consultants. It reserves its harshest critique for Arthur Andersen, the embattled accounting firm that served as Enron's auditor.

The report details financial transactions -- from partnerships to questionable accounting decisions -- that grossly misled investors. the report states.

It concludes that Andersen could be linked to almost every misdeed. "In virtually all of the transactions, Enron's accounting treatment was determined with extensive participation and structuring advice from Andersen," the report notes. Andersen received $5.7 million for consulting work related to two partnerships, beyond standard auditing fees.

"The Board appears to have reasonably relied upon the professional judgment of Andersen concerning Enron's financial statements and the adequacy of controls for the related-party transactions," the report says. "Our review indicates that Andersen failed to meet its responsibilities in both respects."

Andersen issued a statement denying the allegations, claiming that the internal investigation's attempt to shift blame to outsiders is self-serving rhetoric.

The report is also critical of Enron's Houston law firm, Vinson & Elkins, for not bringing a "stronger, more objective and more critical voice to the disclosure process."

Inquiring Minds

It could take years to untangle the complex web once known as Enron. Congress will take another step in that direction this week as Skilling, Fastow and Kopper all trek to Capitol Hill to testify. A spokesperson for Skilling said he still plans to testify, is not seeking immunity and will not refuse to answer questions on Fifth Amendment grounds.

Fastow and Kopper have informed House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Bill Tauzin they will refuse to answer the committee's questions, asserting their Fifth Amendment rights, when called to testify Thursday.

To chronicle the events and what they mean to investors, I'll be writing the Enron Journal on RealMoney.com. Beginning Monday, I'll pen a series of shorter, more spontaneous missives as congressional hearings continue and other investigations search for the truth. Stay tuned. If you don't have a subscription to RealMoney.com, sign up for a free trial today.

This saga is only beginning to unfold.

Enron Powers Internal Report - (Warning -Large PDF Download)

Enron Powers Report - (PDF)

Smaller files of the same report from FindLaw.com:

(1) - Powers Report - (PDF)
(2) - Powers Report - (PDF)
(3) - Powers Report - (PDF)
(4) - Powers Report - (PDF

FindLaw - Enron

Plenty of blame in Enron report

Internal Report Cites Extensive Abuse at Enron

Enron scathed in report

Released Hearing Documents

The Destruction of Enron-Related Documents by Andersen Personnel

Andersen Witnesses Testify

Enron Issues

Report of the President Stanley F. Biggs
"In addition to the 25th anniversary celebration, the Midyear Conference had its usual outstanding program of papers, panels, and plenary sessions. The Friday morning plenary session featured Rick Causey, Executive Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer for Enron Corporation. Rick spoke of the major changes in Enron over the past several decades. The audience was treated to a fascinating discussion of how Enron has decentralized its organizational structure and employed technology to keep up with the fast pace of change in the energy business. In the Friday afternoon plenary session, Robert Elliott of KPMG gave a thought-provoking and fast-paced presentation on “21st Century Assurance.” For those of you who missed his presentation, Bob’s slides are available on the Auditing Section’s web page.

The program included 47 papers covering a broad range of research, education, and practice issues. There were also five panel sessions. I heard many people say that the panel session on “Independence and Non-Audit Services” was one of the best panel sessions they had attended at any conference. Other panel sessions covered the 150-hour rule, International Accounting and Auditing Standards, and Internal Auditing Standards. The program attracted a record number of attendees (over 270)."

Feel free to do what you want with it.
I don't want to do anything with it. What an asinine statement.

...consulting and accounting for the same client just do not work together.
I think many of us already knew that before AA screwed the pooch. That was a real "Duh" on your part.
How does the saying go..."Tell me something I don't know."

Accountable Accountants
"There is nothing rotten in the accounting profession."
Harvey Pitt, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission(January, 2002).

No wonder he's in charge of the Save Enron Commission.

Citibank - The bank of choice for world terrorist and criminal element

Citibank/ENRON = Same M.O.!!!!!!

Arthur Anderson's best selling manual to the legal & accounting profession: How to Cook the Corporate Documents, for fun & profit

"In addition to the 25th anniversary celebration, the Midyear Conference had its usual outstanding program of papers, panels, and plenary sessions.