Breaking:Citi-Group About To Release Enron Like Problem

FOX,CNBC | 7-22-02 | my favorite headache

[My Favorite Headache]

Radio and I just see FOX reporting this. Big lender to worldcom and other giants...in trouble.Markets now back to falling...here we go.

[marshmallow]

Isn't this ironic? It's not the Islamic terrorists that are taking this country down. It's the corporate elite...and the politicians they sleep with. I wonder if history will record this story correctly???

Correct. Only America can destroy America. It's rotting from within.

I believe the Twin Towers collapse was not only a human disaster, but a symbol or a portent, if you will, of what awaits this country's economy, of which the WTC was the most visible symbol.

[kcvl]

Well, THAT certainly makes me FEEL better! /sarcasm!

[Shermy]

Maybe the prince will blame his nemesis: Rudy Giuliani.

[kcvl]

A world-class business leader, Prince Alwaleed is the single largest Arab investor in U.S. corporations, and Forbes magazine listed him as the sixth richest person in the world in 2001. A collaborative effort by TIME and CNN journalists in December named him among the 25 most influential global executives, defined as one of those few CEOs who "exert a broader, lasting influence - creating new industries and reshaping markets and leadership styles."

[My Favorite Headache]

[Centurion2000]

Holy crap ..... the bottom is about to fall out.

[kcvl]

His investments grew rapidly and led to the formation of Riyadh-based Kingdom Holding Company. The Prince is credited with introducing the Arab world to the era of wireless communications, and has been active in bringing the Internet economy to the region. With approximately $16 billion in holdings

In July 1997, Prince Alwaleed debuted his Palestinian investments with a stake in Palestine Investment and Development Company (PADICO), engaged in construction and development projects in the West Bank and Gaza. That same month, he also co-founded Jerusalem Development and Investment Company (JEDICO) to leverage Palestinian presence in Jerusalem through housing and hospitality projects.

[My Favorite Headache]

[aristeides]

I wonder if any of these firms owns or has investments in Hilton Hotels. Might explain the behavior of a certain hotel on Marco Island.

[Ben Hecks]

Did someone say "Bishop Trust"?

[Joe Hadenuf]

I agree.....

[cardinal4]

Another appropriate and great tune; "If it keeps on rainin', the levees gonna break......."

How much ado do you think the media will make of a Klintonistas involvement in the corporate scandals?

[kcvl]

July 19, 2002

Saudi Prince Invests $500M in Citigroup

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, has invested an additional $500 million in Citigroup Inc., the prince said yesterday.

Alwaleed, Citigroup's largest shareholder since 1991, said after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that he would invest about $1 billion in slumping U.S. and European shares.

Alwaleed's latest investment brings his total investment in Citigroup to more than $10 billion, or about 4 percent of the company.

- Dow Jones

[Shermy]

Here's a letter to the editor in the March 1 Moscow Times you might like:
________________________________

I enjoyed your article on Enron. Probably few in Russia realize that the seriousness of Enron's problems have been years in the making. Probably fewer in realize that four years ago Enron was trying to import its game to Russia.

I was working and living with my family in St. Petersburg then. I was a vice president in Enron's engineering and construction company and was heading Enron's involvement in Lentransgaz's Severnaya Compressor Station. It didn't start this way, but the cult that created this financial Jonestown gained control over Enron's business in the Russia in late 1997.

Against my strongly worded advice, the leaders of this Enron cult did a seriously foolish thing. We all know that "seriously foolish" in Russian business can also be seriously dangerous. I had a fierce argument with these people, who were based in London, and it was there that they explained their "brilliance" to me in some detail.

They explained how they had just "built" a "virtual power plant" with a 20 -year project life. And, in a further stroke of brilliance, they had just claimed all 20 years' profits on the first day of the project - "profits" meaning on paper, and "project" meaning agreements were signed.

They went on to describe how they would exploit some of the prospective projects I was working on in Russia and some neighboring countries. Their idea - the world's first virtual power plant - was ludicrous.

My response to them was especially interesting in light of their demise and is, I believe, a tribute to the intelligence and good sense of the people I was working with. In response to their demand to do business the Enron way, I told them, "There is no one I know of who would understand what you just described. And if they did understand it they would bring the men in the white jackets to carry you away." The only person who could change things was Ken Lay - and he dearly cared about us being in Russia - so I jumped over everyone's head and went straight to him. I quickly got an order to "immediately cease communicating with Mr. Lay." After that I became a persona non grata, so I went back to the United States, left Enron, liquidated all of my stock and options and didn't look back until recently, and then only to thank God for protection back then.

I thought this might be an interesting inside peak at Russia's brush with Enron. For my friends there who wondered about my hasty departure, now you know the rest of the story.

[My Favorite Headache]

Citigroup Inc.

The world's second-largest financial services company by assets (Japan's Mizuho Holdings is #1), Citigroup offers credit card, banking (mainly through subsidiary Citibank), asset management, insurance, and investment banking services through more than 5,600 locations worldwide. Subsidiaries include brokerage Salomon Smith Barney, insurer Travelers Life and Annuity, consumer lending unit CitiFinancial, and Primerica Financial Services (term life insurance and asset management). Citigroup is also a leader in online financial services. The firm is using some of the proceeds from its spinoff of Travelers Property Casualty to buy Golden State Bancorp, the parent of Cal Fed, the third-largest thrift in the US.

Top Competitors: Deutsche Bank | J.P. Morgan Chase | Merrill Lynch

KEY NUMBERS

NYSE: C

Fiscal Year-End: December 2001 Sales (mil.): $112,022 1-Yr. Sales Growth: 0.2%

2001 Net Inc. (mil.): $14,284 1-Yr. Net Inc. Growth: 5.7%

2001 Employees: 272,000 1-Yr. Employee Growth: 18.3%

KEY PEOPLE

Key People
Chairman and CEO:
Sanford I. (Sandy) Weill

Chairman of the Executive Committee and Director:
Robert E. Rubin

Senior Vice Chairman:
Victor J. Menezes

Senior Vice Chairman and Senior International Officer:
William R. Rhodes

Vice Chairman; Chairman and CEO, Citigroup International: Sir Deryck C. Maughan

[Free Vulcan]

bump for later reading. Citigroup facilitated a circle (jerk) of trades that essentially amounted to Enron lending money to itself.

[habaes corpussel]

The saudi's....And people can't figure out why we do not kick the Saudi's around. Well this is one of the reasons.

[Free Vulcan]

oh yes, and citigroup got a % cut out of it too.

[mwl1]

Actually could have been much worse.

[Alberta's Child]

GWB probably didn't even have an FBI file when Clinton was in office.

Funny how GWB was nowhere to be seen on the political scene when the Clintons raided those FBI files in 1993. There is a side of me that suspects this was one of the reasons GWB became the front-runner after Dole lost in 1996.

Something else worth noting is that Jeb Bush was nowhere to be seen in politics in 1993, either.