Posted on 01/11/2002 5:07:53 AM PST by TroutStalker
Edited on 04/22/2004 11:45:56 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON -- President Bush called for a thorough government review of the Enron Corp. debacle, amid disclosures that the company's top executive unsuccessfully lobbied two cabinet secretaries for help as the energy-trading concern neared filing for bankruptcy-court protection.
Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay also called Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan around the same time that he was seeking assistance from the administration, a Fed spokesman confirmed.
(Excerpt) Read more at interactive.wsj.com ...
Its also kind of hard to believe that Lay didn't atleast try to contact the president (again there would be nothing wrong with that--money talks).
A big alleged expose is the destruction of records. My guess is they destroyed everything not directly a work product relating to their final audit. This is custumary. Most public corporation audits have the additional onus of always bullet proofing their audit from future, frivolous litigation by money mad trial lawyers. I would hope a public auditor reads this post and addressses this issue.
Finally, as one of the biggest energy players Enron was worthy of notice --even by a "rat" administration. The fact they called the Treasury and others is anticipated in such a dire, financial circumstance.
As an addendum, I tried to make some money off of Calpine (CPN). When it lost 20%, I bailed. The whole issue with the big futures players are derivatives. The real scandal some day is going to be JP Morgan Chase. They have 17 trillion (yes trillion) of financial derivatives supported by 40 billion of unencumbered stockholder equity - over a 700 to one ratio! They are highly profitable, but could be decimated by increasing volatility in interest rate futures. The point is, the people running these highly leveraged financial conglomerates are risk takers and the usual investor is looking at p/e's and pro forma earnings. When the axe falls, everyone is shocked and immediately convinced a bad business decision and model have failed; hence, they look to the congress to criminalize a bad business decision.
Is this really a big issue?! What the heck. The Feds bailed out Chrysler.
It seems to me that in this day and age -- as much as I dislike it being this way -- corporations, especially giant corporations, have investments from millions of citizens and, when a big corporation fails, it is not just a business event, it's also a political event.
So these business losers went to the Feds for help? Big deal. Chrysler went to the Feds for help, too.
At least Bush told them to piss off and didn't throw any more of our money their way...
Mark W.
Am I missing something here? How is this another Watergate? To borrow another phrase from the past, where's the beef?
Didn't get any. What worked with the Clinton Administration did not work with the Bush Administration. The investigation should be into the Clinton Administration's influence peddling. Enron GOT the India deal after paying for that President's ear.
BINGO!!! But, I believe ALL(???) of their relevant records were in the 'Twin Towers', no?
On Oct. 28, Mr. Lay spoke by telephone to Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. The next day he reached Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, an old friend who, as Mr. Bush's chief campaign fund-raiser, knew Mr. Lay well.
At the time, there were reports that Moody's Investor Services was considering lowering its credit rating on Enron debt securities.
The company said employees were notified by mail Oct. 4 that accounts would be frozen from Oct. 29 through Nov. 12. Enron said several reminders were sent via the company's internal e-mail system before Oct. 29 as well.
But did Enron inform their employees prior to Oct.29 that during the shutdown/blackout Enron was going to go begging the Federal government and the FED for a bailout because they were about to go under, or more accurately, sinking fast?
I live in Houston and all I heard from Enron employees before the fall was look at how valuable my Enron stock has become. If the government had set a limit of 10-20% of a company's stock in a retirement plan in 1996 all of the Enron employees would have complained that they could not participate in the increase in stock value.
I do think that Fastow & Skilling knew what was going down, Skilling is a micromanager. Lay & the Board didn't know the extent of Skillings game, Enron had over 200 lawyers plus Vinson & Elkins and Anderson signing off on everything they did. The Board would ask if everyone signed-off and would approve accordingly.
Lay was the ultimate businessman. He covered his bases with donations to whomever could assist his company in it's endevors.
First rule of investing, never leave all your eggs in one basket, diversify!
"You understand when people read this in the newspaper ...
I think you need to keep in mind also, for better or for worse, we had a lot of access in the Clinton administration. Certainly [former Secretary of Energy Bill] Richardson called on me and Enron on a number of occasions to at least discuss different energy matters, [I] was asked a few times even by then-Chief of Staff Mack McLarty about various energy matters, and [former Treasury Secretary Robert] Rubin on other matters. As a major energy company in the country doing a lot of international business too, we have a lot of reason to, in fact, talk with different officials in our government just like they have many reasons to talk with us.....
You recently had a meeting with Governor Davis in Sacramento?
I did.
Is Governor Davis correct in saying that you told him that things are going to get a lot better because Pat Wood is going to be on the commission?
I think he's told me that. He said he met with Pat Wood and he was convinced that, in fact, things would get better with him on the commission. ... He was convinced that Pat Wood would take a lot more proactive role in trying to help California solve its problem."
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