KOPPER'S STASH: Enron exec stool pigeon had three "beamers"

NY POST | 8/23/02 | ERIC MOSKOWITZ

[Liz]

Michael Kopper was living the high life while helping Enron set up partnerships that hid billions of dollars worth of debt.

The exec, who pleaded guilty to securities fraud charges yesterday, made at least $12 million for his role in the scam - money he'll now be forced to fork over as restitution to devastated Enron investors.

Much of the money Kopper pulled out of Enron was turned over to his domestic partner, William D. Dodson, to avoid federal scrutiny, according to Congressional investigators.

And it appears that at least some of that money helped support the couple's lavish lifestyle.

Kopper and Dodson took out a $1.15 million mortgage in January 2001 to buy a 5,200 square-foot house, according to credit reports obtained by The Post.

The couple also collectively own three BMWs, including a Z3 Roadster convertible and a BX5.

"In this age of corporate responsibility, you know the government isn't going to let these guys walk away with millions if they can help it," said one attorney involved in the Enron proceedings.

Kopper, a Woodmere, N.Y. native, has been ordered to pay $12 million in restitution, but it's unclear how much more he might have stashed away.

A call into Kopper's home reached a fax machine. Kopper's attorney, Wallace L. Timmeny, declined to comment.

Of the $12 million in question, Kopper paid himself $4 million to manage one of Enron's partnerships, LJM2 Co-Investment L.P, which also is coming under increasing scrutiny.

The fund's limited partners, who invested $387 million into the fund, are now suing Kopper in the Delaware state courts "to recoup as much money as they can get their hands on," according to one source.

Court papers filed by the partners show they paid Kopper $3.8 million as a 1 percent management fee, but are looking to recover a total of $19 million in fees that include money Enron paid Kopper that the partners contend should have gone to LJM2.

J.P. Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, and Citigroup were just a few of the firms involved in the fund - and they're not exactly happy with the way things turned out.

"We're really annoyed at him," said an executive who works for one of the aggrieved limited partners. "He wasn't well liked at any of the partnerships and sure wasn't in our dealings with him at LJM2."

The former Enron executive also turned in his boss Wednesday, former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow, in return for a possible reduction in what would have been a maximum prison term of 15 years.

With additional reporting by Beth Piskora.

[kcvl]

MICHAEL KOPPER: Mr. Chairman, I respectfully decline to answer the question based on my right under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution not to be a witness against myself.

[kcvl]

Former Enron executive Michael Kopper's home isn't too shabby, either.

Michael Kopper has a real nice place, too. Neighbors call it a modern marble monstrosity -- well done but overdone. At $1.5 million dollars, a real estate agent says it's the most expensive house on the block.

According to Enron's own internal investigation, Kopper and his domestic partner, William Dodson, put $125,000 in one of Enron's failed partnerships, but they made more than $12 million. Neighbors say they just moved into their new home about a month ago.

Last Updated: Feb 12, 2002

[kcvl]

Kopper's home is valued at $1.5 million.

According to Enron's internal investigation, Kopper and his domestic partner put $125,000 into one of Enron's failed partnership, but they made more than $12 million.

[kcvl]

Andersen accountants learned last autumn that Chewco had been run by Michael Kopper, a member of Mr. Fastow's staff who quit in 2001 to help run another Fastow-created partnership, LJM2.

Mr. Riley said Andersen didn't know that Mr. Kopper's domestic partner owned part of the 3 percent equity stake until shortly before Nov. 5, when he urged Enron's board of directors to restate earnings from 1997 through the first half of 2001.

"A document that was intentionally withheld, that's not only something that the SEC might look at but someone might say this might be criminal fraud?" Mr. Weissmann asked.

[kcvl]

Only a few years ago, Skilling, Fastow, and Michael Kopper -- Fastow's lieutenant in the Enron scandal, according to conclusions drawn in the Powers report -- all lived within walking distance of one another in the quiet upper-class neighborhood called Southampton Place, which borders Rice University. It is a nice neighborhood, with houses that go for around a half-million dollars, but all on small lots, with alley parking in the back. Skilling lived in a simple, square brick house with his wife and three children. Kopper lived a few blocks away in a cottage he eventually remodeled to have an almost Japanese-style look, the house taupe in color, with a gray roof. Fastow -- who is still residing in his Southampton house while his new one is under construction -- bought one of the larger houses on his block, a red-brick structure with white trim and a second-floor balcony. This was before they all began upgrading their lifestyles. Before Skilling divorced his first wife in a messy, contentious battle and took up with an Enron secretary whom staffers called "Va Voom" behind her back. Before Fastow formed his side partnerships, enlisting Kopper's aid, and walked off with a minimum of $30 million. Before Enron's stock took off, and everybody made tons of cash. And before all three men -- Skilling, Fastow and Kopper -- bought new properties, tore down the existing structures, and started building their dream houses. Once again, all in the same neighborhood. The neighborhood where the rich live in Houston. The neighborhood where Lay lives. River Oaks.

So now Skilling resides in a mammoth Mediterranean-style home with a tile roof, and he's engaged to Rebecca Carter (the one known as Va Voom), who under Skilling was promoted to executive secretary to Enron's board of directors at a salary of $600,000. Fastow is building something that looks like a country manor, almost Tudor-ish. And Kopper and his partner William Dodson opted for a postmodern abode -- boxy, all white and beige and glass and hard angles. A house so close to the Lays' luxe apartment building that the shadow practically falls across Kopper's lawn. Lay -- who also divorced his first wife and is married to his former secretary -- spent his money in Aspen, where he bought three homes and one lot. He also snapped up several properties in Houston -- mostly older homes on blocks where massive renovations have taken place, areas clearly in the midst of major renewal. These are the homes he's trying to unload now, as he scrambles to pay back multi-millions in debt. The one he's keeping? A $7.1 million apartment in the Huntingdon -- Houston's finest apartment building -- where camera crews routinely sit outside and the Lays' neighbors now grumble that their dinner guests are practically patted down by security before being allowed to enter the building. Pai picked up 77,500 acres (along with some partners) in southern Colorado -- land that former shareholders and employees are trying to attach in their lawsuits. He also bought a ranch in suburban Houston for his second wife, Melanie Fewell Pai, and set her up with a breeding and training operation for top-quality dressage horses. One of the horses he bought for her is named Gucci. Another, named Pay N Go, had previously been summoned by Paul McCartney to perform at his wife's funeral in New York.

"The houses really aren't elaborate for Houston," says one top interior designer in town. "They are pretty much in keeping with what a top executive would have." Skilling's house is decorated in a sleek, black-and-white theme, in homage to Enron's corporate colors. But he hired the Houston-based design team of Michael Galbreth and Jack Massing -- who are known as the "Art Guys" -- to do his guest quarters. Funky, humorous -- at times even described as adolescent in their approach to design -- the Art Guys did the bedroom with a folk art approach, with lots of color and a focus on lips. Lips on the walls. Lips on the sheets. In some Houston circles, the room is referred to, simply, as the Lip Room. It was perfect for Skilling, a man who lives to be on the edge.

[kcvl]

In the manipulation of the partnerships, one of Fastow’s former assistants, Michael Kopper, made $10.5 million last year on a 1997 investment of $125,000. In the true Houston style of conspicuous consumption, the openly gay Kopper and his domestic partner built a lavish modern house. The Houston rabbi who had conducted Fastow’s wedding presided over the mounting of a mezuzah on Kopper’s new front door.

[kcvl]

Fastow worked hard to enrich himself and others who could be of use to him. One was Enron lawyer Kristina Mordaunt, who in March 2000 was invited into a Fastow venture called Southampton Place. She put down $5,800, expecting to make a little money over time, her lawyer Hayden Burns tells Time. Only a few weeks later, she got a call from Michael Kopper, a Fastow associate, who said the deal was winding down. When Mordaunt opened her bank statement in April, she saw a deposit for $1 million. The Powers report of Enron's special directors committee suggests Mordaunt was cut into the deal to secure her loyalty. Burns says his client did nothing in return for the windfall. She wasn't the only winner in Southampton Place: Fastow and Kopper each turned a $25,000 investment into $4.5 million.

[laconic]

I wonder if he will visit him in prison, and I hope its hard time in a max security facility like Angola, Louisiana or Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, not some country club facility like the Club Fed at Allenwood. At least if he goes to prison, it looks like Michael Kopper will be getting a new boyfriend (or boyfriendS).

[kcvl]

Federal prosecutors, who are investigating possible criminal activity in connection with Enron's bankruptcy, have obtained the spreadsheets, the Times said. Asked about the Times article, the Justice Department declined comment on whether prosecutors had the information.

Andrew Fastow, the former chief financial officer who devised many of the off-books partnerships, received $350,000 on Jan. 11, 2001, followed by $1.3 million a few weeks later on Feb. 5 and $1.4 million two days later, the Times reported.

Michael Kopper, an executive who worked with Fastow, got $800,000 on Feb. 5, 2001, followed by $603,000 the next day, the Times said. Kopper also received $905,000 on Aug. 10 as part of a severance agreement, the Times said.

[backhoe]

Really good info here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/737753/posts

GORE AND ENRON
Various Media Outlets Found in Research and Referenced | 22 August 2002 | Freeper Research
"Hope every freeper sends this out to all their local media, friends, enemies, family members, etc. This is what FR is all about - getting the job done..."

 

[Liz]

Michael Kopper has a real nice place, too. Neighbors call it a modern marble monstrosity -- well done but overdone. At $1.5 million dollars, a real estate agent says it's the most expensive house on the block.

That's dumb....you don't put expensive real estate in an area of lower priced homes. Only a sucker would buy it........oh, yeah, I forgot, there's a lot of Enron suckers out there (snicker).

[Liz]

Thanks for the link.....great reference source.

[Liz]

According to Enron's internal investigation, Kopper and his domestic partner put $125,000 into one of Enron's failed partnership, but they made more than $12 million.

Shades of Terry McAwful...........guess these guys shared their little (ahem) investing tricks, eh? Looks like there is honor among thieves after all.

[laconic]

To this day, I have no idea what these partnerships supposedly DID, why banks were loaning and investing money in them, and how the inhouse lawyers ever allowed the thieves that ran them to be paid millions for a "job" that apparently entailed no work whatever. Can someone explain?

[bandleader]

If he does visit him in prison,I've got an idea for the PERFECT gift,SOAP-ON-A_ROPE!!

[laconic]

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that Kopper ate dinner three times a week at Nobu, where sushi meals of things like green seaweed can run $100 a person and up. I wonder how Master Thief of the Universe Kopper will like the dining room at Angola Prison, where they serve green baloney and the meals are free (that is, if you do your daily ration of dishwashing, floormopping or toilet cleaning). There is one big difference; you better not yell at the "waiters" when you're displeased with service and you don't send food back to the chef.

[Liz]

Think "scam," "fraud," "con," "flim-flam."

That should clear it for ya.

[Liz]

Great restaurant. Food is superb. But you are right.

There'll be no more marinated black sea bass served with ginger ponzu sauce and crunchy risotto made with soba seeds. None of the kanpachi (amberjack) in a grainy daikon dressing enlivened with chilies. And no more striped bass set on a frozen shiso vinaigrette.

I bet Kopper'll really miss the spectacular presentation of the chef's-choice sashimi and sushi called omakase. But the waiter will ask about a diner's budget. Kopper musta splurged spending his ill-got gains on pristine slices of sashimi nestled against a crystalline block of ice and decorated with fresh flowers, and on the side a chunk of wasabi root and a grater to make his own incendiary condiment.

Green baloney can't compare to Nobu's sushi presented on a narrow tray holding roe-topped bites of rice: osetra caviar, sea urchin roe, flying fish roe, cod roe, even herring roe. And the diced eel rolls embellished with almonds, are so inventive.

Gee, I feel so bad (sniff). I think I'm gonna lose it ({{sob}}}.

[mewzilla]

Hey, at least the guy didn't have $6,000 shower curtain!

And hopefully soon he won't have a pot to pee in.