The top Enron people ecercised their stock options, and/or sold stock that they had already excersized, as the grants expiured, but hadn't sold, mainly to av oid the tax liability...as you know these were ISO's and there in no tax due on an ISO when the option is exercised, only when the sgtock is sold.......and beacuse the options aren't in the plan, they weren't tied up..
I just heard about the press release you referenced, and I for one, don't believe it....first, IMHO, it would be impossible for TPA's to sign off on an exchange of that magnitude in so short a time....it just isn't done.....I'd wager that the short delay refers to the inability to make ongoing contributions..that was suspended for a short while.....again, this is all informed speculation on my part, and I may be wrong......we shall see...
The whole question of finanacial and accounting standards, if not addressed, will ultimaely threaten the viability of our capital markets....looks at the Nasdaq bubble the last 5 years.....what was perpetrated on the investing public with the dot.boms....is a huge fraud...the lawsuits are grinding through the legal mill, and it won't be pretty...
So far as I can see, the folks on this forum have a waaaay better understanding of what's going on with Enron than any of the so-called news pundits. For what it's worth, I agree with you about that Enron release. I've worked for plenty of companies who have transitioned to a new plan overseer. Usually the funds in the old plan are left there while all new contributions are put into the new plan. The employees can then "roll-over" their investment in the old plan into the new one. There might be a period of time when the contributions would not be deducted from an employee's paycheck though I don't see why. It's the roll-overs that I think were held up and those things do take quite a bit of time. Once a rollover is started there is no way to access it and change the investment's composition. It would seem, if our suspicions are correct, that Enron is spinning this thing. I don't believe that two week period as being a limit for employees to move their money but as a period when they could possibly not contribute to the new plan.
As for AA, the legal remedy for what is soooooo obviously bribery is only the ability for the company and/or stockholders to sue the CPA firm that verified those awful statements. At least as far as I know. Seems to me this might be the issue congress has to address-any firm certifying erroneous information to the investing public should be guilty of CRIMINAL conduct. Not to mention "destroying" those documents, a statement that makes me laugh unbelievable. Accounting firms do NOT ever, not ever or ever or ever and you'll have to trust me on this if you don't believe, destroy ANY documents relating to a client, on down to the lowest auditor's work papers. Accounting firms rent huge warehouses to store their clients' workpapers such is how important this sort of thing is.
AA needs to go down. Big time.
I could go on and on about how the liberal media is spinning this to be a Republican issue but...hey, another missive. It got so bad on CNN this morning that I had to change the channel because my sticking a huge middle finger directly in front of the TV was not shutting them up.
The important thing is that folks on this forum need to KNOW and understand the truth because it looks like the Democrats are banking on sound bytes (Texas, Oil, contributions to Bush campaign, a few phone calls to Bush cabinet members) to get the public riled up. If anyone is guilty of giving Enron a Lewinsky it was the Clinton administration. The Dems know this but seems to me they are going to risk it. The spin on the Sunday talks shows should be veerrrrry interesting.
Just a couple of questions. Can the free market provide effective self-regulation in a case like this? Or is government regulation needed?
Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.