A primer for Freepers on three issues of the Enron fraud and investigation

self

[ken5050]

There are two distinct aspects to the Enron mess; the political mudslinging, and the criminal fraud aspects of the case as pertains to the company and its auditors, Arthur Anderson. Oddly, in all the verbiage that has been written to date, very little has been written that begins to explain the TRUE nature of the financial fraud at Enron. More oddly, it is not that difficult to understand. For those who would like some insight, I will attempt to clarify, in lay terms, three points which, I believe, will ultimately be crucial as the investigations commence. So, if you'd like to learn, and understand a few things, read on.....

[Doctor Raoul]

I trust that Front Page is OK for this..

Sure as hell got my vote.

[Buckeroo]

Well, of course, John Ashcroft has already stepped away from this "scandal." But you don't see the continuing unraveling of big political parties taking advantage of BIG_GOVERNMENT, do you?

[okie01]

See #20. You beat me to it.

But "flipping" is what it was.

[ken5050]

Unlike the S&L scandals, where properties were flipped several times.....the asset placed into the partnership was fraudulently scaled up only once......The auditors blew it..But the supposedly sophisticated bankers, who lent the billions to the partnerships with virtually no documentation, they really sold out, or displayed abysmal stupidity..at least the taxpayers, via the FDIC or FSLIC, won't get stuck for this one...

[YaYa123]

Where have you been? Tonight alone, I've heard Evan Thomas of Newsweek, Linda Greenfield of Washington Week, John King, CNN, Bethany McLean of Fortune Magazine, Byron York of National Review, Steve Liesman of The Wall Street Journal, Lou Dobbs of CNN, Lanny Davis, Larry Ludlow and James Cramer on America Now, and even John McCain on Larry King Live say there has been no indication, no evidence, that this administration is linked to any ENRON wrong doing.

[_Jim]

Stock options ... are given mainly to top managers.

Mmmmmm ... not quite and not always.

I've worked for a couple of firms that gave 'common' employees 'options' on their stock ... one of those has the NYSE symbol "TXN" ...

[ken5050]

That's the 64k question..these things don't happen in a vacuum......lots of people have ownership. AA had to bless this from the inception...it grew, evolved, over time, then got bigger and bigger......Stupidity by the board may not be a crimnal offense, but the civil penalties will be staggering....

[Bonaparte]

fyi

[Objective Reality]

excellent post, and thanks for devoting a Friday evening to this. I understand all, now. Proud to bump a fine effort.

[Buckeroo]

Are you familiar with who are the Board of Directors of ENRON?

[ken5050]

It's questionable as to whether they ever had any profits to speak of.....if it was all creative writing, then litle things like EPS and cash flow are meaingless..no basis whatsover to evaluate..

[isthisnickcool]

Well, of course, John Ashcroft has already stepped away from this "scandal."

That's "plenty of Republican leadership?" Lame....

[YaYa123]

the only names I'm familiar with are Lay and Wendy Gramm

[cookcounty]

Thanks, Ken. Good job.

How does Enron's Board of Directors fit into this? Don't they have some legal responsibility to provide oversight?

[bayourod]

The long term impact of this scandal may be a loss of confidence in the accounting profession.

It will be interesting to listen to the auditors from AA try to justify the accounting methods used by their own accountants working with Enron.

[ken5050]

Tis true that more companies are giving option to all emplloyees...course, that's a whole nother problem n corporate accounting....However, there is a big difference between ISO's which the top guys get, and NQSO's which the little folks get...as to tax treatment.....the top folks at Enron got ISO's..I didn't want to get into too much technical stuff..

[rwfromkansas]

ALERT!!!!:

Folks, I am very pissed off. The local news just did an Enron piece mentioning links between Bush and Enron and adding that Brownback took money from the company for his senate campaign and will be part of the team investigating the collapse of Enron (implying he may have a conflict of interest).....boy am I steamed!!!! I could not believe the crap that I just saw...usually KWCH is fair, but not tonight.

Folks, I am getting ready to e-mail the investigative department of the station. I urge you all to do the same. Here is the e-mail address to give YOUR ideas of what should really be investigated in regards to Enron (hint, the Dems!). If I just e-mail, they probably won't pay any attention, but if they get 10 e-mails, they might take some notice.

Here are some e-mail addresses. I think the most important ones are these since they are connected to the investigative team that looks into issues viewers raise: ckoeberl@kwch.com
deck@kwch.com
nflynn@kwch.com

Here are some others:
Kathy Mohn, General Manager: kmohn@kwch.com
Mitch Jacob, News Director: mjacob@kwch.com

[stilts]

Nice explanation. Plenty of politicians in this mess too. There were very few politicians on both sides of the aisle that didn't receive large donations from Enron. With all the money and crooks involved here, and with all the regulators and government types involved in this industry, I'm sure there are lots of folks in Washington tossing the nights away. Greed and power have long been bed-fellows and this will be no exception.

Can't say I mind seeing Arthur Anderson go down. This ought to get all the big accounting firms very nervously reviewing all there chummy client audits. These audits have long been a joke and are seldom the independent opinion they claim. Only the large public companies can afford these large firm fees and the accounting firms can hardly afford to expose these clients as their existence is dependent on these client's business. One hand washes the other.

[YaYa123]

I love how Waxman proves the old "damned if you do, damned if you don't" saying. If Ashcroft hadn't recused himself, he would have been accused of protecting a contributor. Now that he's quickly and honorably recused himself, Waxman says it's because he's involved.

Waxman, who never found fault with Janet Reno taking months and months to make a decision, is going to look like a real jackass in his hearings. The American people aren't going to take kindly to his baseless partisan attacks. I can hardly wait!

[ken5050]

Yes, but......the relationships on corporate boards make incest look like child's play.....the CEO,chairman pick the board, the so-called independent directors.....the system works well EXCEPT in cases of fraud.....it's no different than parents refusing to see that their little kid is using drugs, until he OD's...then it's too late.....the damage is done..