Posted on 01/26/2002 7:17:36 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
NewsMax.com
Saturday Jan. 26, 2002; 10:30 a.m. EST
Houstonians Debate: Was Baxter 'Vince Fostered'?
News that ex-Enron executive Cliff Baxter had been found shot to death ignited a firestorm of speculation on Friday, and nowhere was the debate more intense than on talk radio in Baxter's hometown of Houston, Texas.
"I would say it's about 60/40 that people down here think he may have been Vince Fostered," said KPRC radio host Chris Baker Saturday morning.
Suspicions intensified when police rushed Baxter's body from his late model Mercedes where it was found in a Houston suburb to a local funeral home without further examination, the Texas radio talker noted.
But then "the Justice of the Peace in the area decided he was going to be much more thorough," Baker told WABC radio's John Gambling in New York. "So now the body's going to go for autopsy and that cooled down a lot of that, maybe-this-guy-was-murdered thing."
Still, questions continue to swirl, he said.
"You know, there's a saying that you can always blame a dead man so - (while) I truly believe it's a suicide, the rumors are going to start," Baker predicted.
The KPRC host said that any attempt to make Baxter Enrongate's fall guy would be complicated by his image as a straight shooter. "It would be strange to see (Baxter's colleagues) point the finger because this guy did have a reputation for boldly speaking with former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling and protesting against a lot of (the company's) business practices."
Houston police have so far declined to release the contents of a suicide note found in Baxter's car. But ABC News reported Friday night that several coworkers said the ex-Enron executive had expressed distress over the prospect of having to testify against his former colleagues in upcoming Congressional hearings.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
I will continue reading the rest of your post and responding when you point out exactly where I called someone stupid. I didn't. As I pointed out in the earlier post, I called the rhetoric stupid, and I feel that is justified. I further pointed out the reasons why in post 116. If you don't agree with those reasons, fine, we can discuss that, but don't say I called anyone stupid because I didn't. I happen to think both individuals are not stupid; I've read their posts in other situations. I think the first individual got a little too carried away in his conspiracy theory, and I think both of them got a little too emotionally attached to their argument.
I'm also curious as to your feeling on the insult regarding outmatched on wits.
Has anyone explored a possible connection between Enron VP Sherron Watkins and James Watkins other than the name?
Enron's prophet of doom not the classic whistleblower
IT WAS a typically hot, steamy August day in Houston and Ms Sherron Watkins was scared.
'I am incredibly nervous,' she pounded out on her computer keyboard. 'Has Enron become a risky place to work? For those of us who didn't get rich over the last few years, can we afford to stay?'
Despite the panicked tone, Ms Watkins' words were not part of a gossipy e-mail to a colleague or friend. They were the beginning of an anonymous, seven-page memo to her boss Kenneth Lay, chief executive of Enron, in which she set out her fears that the company's questionable accounting practices would lead the energy giant to 'implode in a wave of accounting scandals'.
'My eight years of Enron work history will be worth nothing on my resume,' she pleaded. 'The business world will consider the past successes as nothing but an elaborate accounting hoax.'
It was not like Ms Watkins to be frightened. According to those who know her, the 42-year-old Texan - an Enron vice-president - is a tough-minded, intelligent and religious woman who thrived in the competitive environment of Enron's headquarters.
'Sherron is a woman who is very confident. She knows what she is doing,' says Ms Wilma Williams, 60, who spent a year and a half as Ms Watkins' administrative assistant and who has known her for four years.
'She can hold her own with anyone, no matter if it is a senior administrative assistant, a copy person or the president or chief executive officer... She is not afraid of stating her mind.'
Indeed, despite her Texas roots - she grew up in Southampton, a small town outside Houston, and received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Texas in Austin - some colleagues believed she was a hard-bitten recruit from the north-east, traits that are perhaps the legacy of the three years spent in New York City at MG Trade Finance before joining Enron.
Ms Watkins has declined interview requests. But when the full story of Enron's collapse becomes known, she may emerge with credit.
Just as Watergate had Mr John Dean, the young White House lawyer who marched into the Oval Office in March 1973 to tell President Richard Nixon the scandal was 'a cancer close to the presidency', Ms Watkins appears to have been one of the few Enron employees willing to confront Mr Lay.
Her initial letter - written just after Mr Lay held a company-wide meeting to announce the departure of chief executive Jeffrey Skilling and encouraged employees to voice any concerns - was anonymous.
A week later, she was having an hour-long, face-to-face meeting with Mr Lay, to which she brought additional documents to back up her claims.
Like that of Mr Dean's, Ms Watkins' warning came too late. Enron is bankrupt, thousands of employees have lost their jobs and their pensions, and the reputations of many associated with it may never recover.
Like Mr Dean also, Ms Watkins' motives have been questioned. There have been mutterings that she wanted to discredit Mr Andrew Fastow, Enron's former chief financial officer, to get a close colleague promoted to Mr Fastow's position.
Indeed, her colleague Jeff McMahon, Enron treasurer, now occupies Mr Fastow's old position.
But to her champions, the letter was a principled act, one particularly risky for a female middle manager in a male-dominated office.
'What she did took courage,' says her lawyer Philip Hilder. 'And she did it because it was the right thing to do.'
Ms Watkins began her career, ironically enough, at Andersen, the accounting firm now embroiled in controversy for signing off Enron's questionable balance sheets and then shredding thousands of documents when government regulators came looking.
She joined as an auditor in Andersen's Houston office in 1982, working there until she moved to New York in 1990. She joined Enron in 1993.
'It was a hard-charging place, not conducive to an open-door policy,' she told her lawyer about Enron.
At the same time 'it was generally a fun place where there were a lot of bright, smart, energetic people, and it was a joy to work there'.
While at Enron, she remained in contact with friends at Andersen. One, Mr James Hecker, received an 'ostensibly social call' from Ms Watkins a week after she had sent her letter to Mr Lay. After small talk, the conversation soon turned to Enron.
'Although she seemed initially reluctant to get into the details with me... she obviously wanted a 'sounding board' with whom she could discuss certain of her concerns,' Mr Hecker recalled in a memo to colleagues.
Ms Watkins poured out her worries about substantial losses in private partnerships that were not being reported on Enron's financial disclosure forms. These losses, once made public last Oct 16, triggered Enron's plunge into bankruptcy.
'I told her I admired her 'stand-up' attitude,' Mr Hecker wrote.
It is a sentiment shared by Congressional investigators, who uncovered both her letter to Mr Lay - buried in 40 boxes of documents sent to a House of Representatives committee - and Mr Hecker's memo.
'Her description of the transactions, knowledge of the deals and concern about their ramifications was right on the money,' says Mr Ken Johnson, a top aide on the committee staff.
Yet, for all the talk of Ms Watkins as a heroine with a sharp mind for business, friends insist that her portrayal as a driven woman and corporate whistleblower is misguided.
They emphasise her devotion to her daughter, born when Ms Watkins was 40. Her motive for writing to Mr Lay, they insist, was one of genuine concern.
The culture in Houston, although it had become more driven under Mr Skilling, was one of strong corporate loyalty. She wrote the letter with great trepidation, and against the advice of some colleagues.
Loyalty may explain why Ms Watkins did not go directly to government regulators, as a classic whistleblower might have done.
'I believe Mr Ken Lay deserves the right to judge for himself what he believes the probabilities of discovery to be, and the estimated damages to the company from those discoveries,' she wrote.
'I firmly believe that the probability of discovery increased with Mr Skilling's shocking departure. Too many people are looking for a smoking gun.'
In the end, Ms Watkins' motives are beside the point. She alerted both Enron and Andersen that they had built a house of cards, months before either admitted this publically.
And she was right.--Financial Times
In 1997, aged 37, she married Richard Watkins, another executive in the energy business, whom she met in church. She climbed the company ladder to the level of vice president, not quite high enough to become one of those to luxuriate in the slushing off of millions to so-called 'part nerships' of Enron, many of them offshore.
By Kieran Nicholson
Denver Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 04, 2001 - A body discovered in a van in Pike National Forest was identified Monday as a missing 59-year-old Jefferson County man.
James Watkins, missing since Nov. 13, apparently committed suicide, said Jacki Tallman, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.
"It appears he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Tallman said.
Watkins' wife of 33 years, Pat, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Watkins' van was spotted about 6 p.m. Saturday by a snowmobile rider who recognized it from media reports about the missing engineering consultant.
The Douglas County coroner's office on Monday had not completed autopsy, toxicology and forensic work, but "no foul play is suspected at this time," said Wes Riber, deputy coroner.
A weapon and a note were found at the scene, Tallman said. Contents of the note were not disclosed.
Watkins, employed at Arthur Andersen consultants, was last seen by co-workers at his downtown Denver office. At the time of his disappearance, he was preparing for a business trip to China.
In her memo, Watkins focused most heavily on several transactions between Enron and LJM known as the Raptor deals. The term referred to a special business entity that Enron had established to hold several investments that were expensive and of possibly marginal value, including ownership in a broadband communications company called Rhythms NetConnections and other technology and energy companies.
Not until Nov. 8 did Enron fully disclose the nature of the Raptor deals--as part of its public announcement that the improper accounting of those transactions and others resulted in its overstating its earnings by $586 million over a nearly five-year period.
The announcement all but destroyed any chance that the company would be able to survive in its existing form.
Rhythms NetConnections considers sale
Englewood-based Rhythms NetConnections is considering selling the company.
The company, which provides DSL service, has retained investment banking firm Lazard Freres & Co. LLC to explore strategic options, including a sale.
Other options include a joint venture, a partnership, a merger or reorganization.
Rhythms, which says it has enough cash to fund the business into January 2002, faces delisting from Nasdaq, where it trades under the symbol RTHM. The company has failed to satisfy listing requirements of Nasdaq. Rhythms says it hasn't received the formal delisting notice yet, but isn't sure it will appeal that notice.
Gunshot caused death of Denver consultant
By News Staff
An autopsy report has confirmed that a man whose body was found in a van parked in the Pike National Forest last week committed suicide.
Snowmobile riders discovered the body of James Daniel Watkins, 59, in a snow-packed parking area off Rampart Ridge Road in Douglas County on Dec. 1.
The discovery came nearly two weeks after the Jefferson County man had been reported missing.
Watkins' body was lying in the back of his locked 1998 Ford Econoline van partially covered in a sheet, according to the Douglas County autopsy report, which was released Tuesday.
Watkins died of a single gunshot to the right temple.
A .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun was found lying near Watkins' right hand, according to the report. Investigators also found a note.
Watkins had been missing since the afternoon of Nov. 13, when he left work at the downtown Denver accounting firm of Arthur Andersen.
Watkins, a telecommunications consultant, was described by his wife, Pat, during an interview last week as a devoted family man who always called home if he was going to be late.
She later said the family was "brokenhearted," but she declined to comment further.
Officials initially said the death was suspicious and were awaiting the autopsy findings before ruling whether it was a homicide or a suicide.
The condition of the body, which had apparently been in the car for a long time, delayed the autopsy, said Wes Riber, Douglas County's chief deputy coroner.
December 12, 2001
--Enron whistleblower VP Sherron Watkins(wife of Richard Watkins) worked for Arthur Anderson from 1982 to 1993. She joined Enron in 1993.
--In her famous memo, Watkins focused most heavily on several transactions between Enron and LJM known as the Raptor deals. The term referred to a special business entity that Enron had established to hold several investments that were expensive and of possibly marginal value, including ownership in a broadband communications company called Rhythms NetConnections and other technology and energy companies.
--Not until Nov. 8, 2001, did Enron fully disclose the nature of the Raptor deals--as part of its public announcement that the improper accounting of those transactions and others resulted in its overstating its earnings by $586 million over a nearly five-year period.
--James Daniel Watkins, a telecommunications expert, was last seen alive on Nov 13, 2001, when he left work at the downtown Denver accounting firm of Arthur Anderson.
--It was later determined that James Watkins committed suicide via gunshot to the head.
-- Rhythms Net Connections is a telecommunications company based in Denver.
Since founding Rhythms NetConnections Inc. in 1997, Catherine M. Hapka has led the company through a successful initial public offering and has secured $1.8 billion in financing to fund the company’s aggressive network expansion.
Under Hapka’s leadership, Rhythms has negotiated strategic alliances with leading telecommunications carriers, as well as partnerships with national and regional Internet service providers and broadband communication services resellers. These efforts have enabled the company to deploy one of the largest digital subscriber line (DSL)-based networks in the U.S.
In April 2001, Rhythms NetConnections CEO Catherine Hapka resigns, one day after the company reveals in a regulatory filing that she received a 10 percent raise while leading the company to a Nasdaq delisting and is in line for a $400,000 golden parachute. Hapka also reaps $21.5 million from the sale of Rhythms stock. Company officials claim that the company has enough cash to last well into 2002. Five months later, the DSL provider closes up shop.
The financial activities of a wholly-owned subsidiary of LJM1, which engaged in derivative transactions with Enron to permit Enron to hedge market risks of an equity investment in Rhythms NetConnections, Inc., should have been consolidated into Enron's financial statements beginning in 1999.
"Cliff Baxter complained mightily to (then-Enron President and CEO Jeff) Skilling and all who would listen about the inappropriateness of our transactions with LJM," Watkins wrote
By Associated Press, 2/3/2002 18:37
HOUSTON (AP) Here are excerpts from a 203-page internal probe into partnerships that helped fuel Enron Corp.'s collapse last year:
..................
Regarding Andrew Fastow's proposal to Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling that he run the LJM Cayman LP partnership, ''Fastow presented his participation as something he did not desire personally, but was necessary to attract investors to permit Enron to hedge its substantial investment in (Internet service provider) Rhythms NetConnections, and possibly to purchase other assets in Enron's merchant portfolio.''
It is painfully obvious how this story ends: the dot.com bubble burst and by 2001 shares of Rhythms Net Communications were worthless. Enron had to deliver more shares to “make whole” the investors in Raptor and other similar deals. In all, Enron had derivative instruments on 54.8 million shares of Enron common stock at an average price of $67.92 per share, or $3.7 billion in all. In other words, at the start of these deals, Enron’s obligation amounted to seven percent of all of its outstanding shares. As Enron’s share price declined, that obligation increased and Enron’s shareholders were substantially diluted. And here is the key point: even as Raptor’s assets and Enron’s shares declined in value, Enron did not reflect those declines in its quarterly financial statements.
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