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To: Dog
No, Dog, just one of the nosiest. lol!
129 posted on 07/22/2002 12:43:16 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: kcvl
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.

154 posted on 07/22/2002 12:58:49 PM PDT by Shermy
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