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WASHINGTON (AP) -- An auditor said to have led a hurry-up effort to destroy documents in the Enron case was cooperating with congressional investigators a day after his accounting firm fired him, his attorneys said. David Duncan, who oversaw Enron's audits from the Houston office of Arthur Andersen LLP, was to be interviewed Wednesday by staff from the House Energy and Commerce Committee. On Tuesday, Andersen said Duncan organized a document destruction effort on Oct. 23 shortly after he learned the Securities and Exchange Commission was asking Enron for accounting information. The effort ended Nov. 9 when Duncan's assistant ...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The job of recovering the missing Enron Corp. accounting documents is falling to computer sleuths whose work can foil the casual use of the delete button. They've been called on before in high-profile cases, looking for suspected spy transmissions and missing Clinton White House e-mails. And now they'll be asked to recover documents from the computers of Arthur Andersen LLP, which acknowledges its employees destroyed thousands of e-mails and paper documents about Enron. Investigators want to know who knew about the problems at Enron, which shocked the financial world and its own employees with its fall ...

Rep Elliot Engel (D-NY) called for an investigation into Bill Clinton's ties to Enron on Monday, saying he wanted any probe into the collapse of the energy giant to be comprehensive. "I don't think we should exclude anything," Engel told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg. "You want to look into Enron's ties with the Clinton administration, I'm all for it. We ought to look into everyone's ties with Enron." Engel's comments were the latest signs that the Enrongate scandal may disappoint party faithful who only days earlier were predicting the scandal would be "Bush's Whitewater." But as more information emerges daily ...

<p>A venerable and politically connected law firm advised Enron Corp. officials not to worry about a company employee's warnings of questionable accounting, based on an inquiry that only canvassed Enron executives and its accountants at Arthur Andersen LLP.</p> <p>The report by Vinson & Elkins partner Max Hendricks III, a copy of which was obtained by The Wall Street Journal, concluded that Enron's practice of forming special-purpose entities to keep debt off its books was "creative and aggressive," but that "no one has reason to believe that it is inappropriate from a technical standpoint."</p>

ASHINGTON, Jan. 15 — Arthur Andersen fired its partner in charge of auditing the Enron Corporation (news/quote) today, saying he had ordered the destruction of thousands of documents and e-mail messages after learning that the Securities and Exchange Commission had begun an investigation of Enron's accounting. The fired partner, David B. Duncan, called a meeting of auditors at the firm's Houston office and ordered "an expedited effort to destroy documents" on Oct. 23, the day after Enron disclosed that the S.E.C. had begun its inquiry, the firm said. The destruction apparently did not end until Mr. Duncan's assistant sent ...

Jonah Goldberg (printer-friendly version) January 16, 2002 Ken Lay should be handcuffed to a basement radiator next to a half-starved wolverine. The cadre of cash-outers from Enron's executive ranks should be forced to watch Bette Midler's "Beaches" with their eyelids propped open, like the guy from "A Clockwork Orange," for the rest of their lives. Anyone who says Enron without scowling should be publicly flogged with bamboo rods by bands of righteous citizens. OK? Have I sufficiently denounced Enron? Am I on the record saying that what these guys did was wrong? Good. The last thing I want to do ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The growing scandal over the collapse of Enron Corp. deepened on Tuesday, with accounting firm Andersen saying its lead partner for auditing the energy trader had ordered documents destroyed after learning federal regulators wanted to see them. Andersen, which has been under fire for its handling of Enron's books, said it would fire the partner, David B. Duncan. The company also said it placed three other partners responsible for the Enron work on leave. Andersen said "thousands" of e-mails and "large numbers" of paper documents relating to Enron were destroyed after Duncan learned on Oct. ...

Our internet connections are very quirky here in Arkansas. I found these sitting in my inbox. From: Ken @ Enron To: Bob @ AA- New York Dear Bob. How are you? Fine I hope. I think I got it now. "Debits" are pluses and "credits" are minuses. When you put them together, they wipe each other out. I still don't understand why "sales" are "credits." If "sales" are credits, then that makes them "minuses." But I thought sales were a good thing? How about "sales" for "cash"? Are they "credits" too? If so, how can that be? Cash and credit ...

...All over Washington, the pundits are wondering how [the Enron story] will play out for George Bush -- how should he handle it? I have an idea. He could get indignant. Bush could scream bloody murder. He could tell the Enron executives to put that $1.1 billion in stock sales into a pool for Enron employees who now have nothing. He could tell Kenneth Lay, the chairman and chief executive, to give back the more than $30 million he got in stock sales. He could tick off the names of each and every executive and then -- like Ronald Reagan ...

With the rapid growth of technology and globalization, the world appears to be shrinking. The relationships between nations and states become increasingly complex as they are forced closer together. It is imperative that we understand this process and the tensions that inevitably accompany it. We should not be surprised to learn that other cultures, speak, eat and, most importantly, think differently than we do. We are wise to make accommodations when dealing with hitherto remote and unfamiliar cultures with which we become newly engaged. With Enron, we confront the business culture of Texas. Too many of us, I am afraid, ...

<p>January 15, 2002 -- YOU may not know it yet - in part because the mainstream media doesn't exactly know it yet - but the Enron scandal died over the weekend. Certainly, the details of how a $70 billion company went bankrupt in record time will continue to fascinate, and it may well be that people in and around Enron will deservedly end up in jail.</p>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Enron Corp. employees were so nervous about the energy trader's murky finances last summer that they wished they "would get caught" for using shaky accounting methods, a company vice president wrote to Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay in a letter released in its entirety on Tuesday. Whistle-blower Sherron Watkins, an Enron Global Finance vice president, wrote in August -- months before Enron's stunning collapse -- that she had heard one senior Enron manager say, "I know it would be devastating to all of us, but I wish we would get caught." Questioning Enron's accounting for deals involving one ...

<p>New York, Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Duke Energy Corp., Mirant Corp. and other electricity companies have taken market share from their once dominant rival Enron Corp., easing the threat of higher prices after the bankruptcy of the largest energy trader.</p>

<p>Capping a series of stunning disclosures, Arthur Andersen LLP fired a partner it charged with directing the hurried destruction of thousands of e-mails and paper documents related to its audit of troubled Enron Corp., declaring that he acted after learning that federal regulators were probing the energy giant's finances.</p>

NATIONAL LEGAL AND POLICY CENTER "Promoting Ethics in Government" 103 West Broad Street, Suite 620 Falls Church, Virginia 22046 703-237-1970, Fax 703-237-2090 www.nlpc.org, nlpc@nlpc.org VIA FACSIMILE January 15, 2002 Senator Joseph Lieberman Chairman Senate Governmental Affairs Committee 340 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Lieberman: I am writing to ask you to recuse yourself from any participation in the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's upcoming hearing and consideration of the Enron case. Last Thursday, Attorney General Ashcroft recused himself from the Enron case the same day he received a letter from Rep. Henry Waxman in which Waxman questioned ...

<p>A government watchdog group yesterday asked Democratic Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman to quit a politically charged investigation of Enron Corp. because he and his New Democrat Network have received more than $250,000 in campaign donations from firms with ties to the case.</p>

<p>"Oh, Lord. The winds of scandal rumor are so great; and our rudder of logic is so tiny. Whither goest our ship in this gathering storm?" I offer this little prayer as we embark to salvage the wreckage from the sinking of the S.S. Enron. Of course, the attention given to this salvage operation is possible only because there is a brief lull in the greater storm — the mortal storm that at any minute may kill thousands of us as we work or play or rest. But enough of such important matters, we are entitled to a little diversion after the horrors of last fall.</p>

Andersen admiited on Tuesday that its staff appeared to have shredded and deleted Enron documents after recieving a subpeona from regulators, the first strong sign that there may have been criminal activity linked to the demise of the U.S. energy trader.The Big Five professional services firm also said had fired David Duncan, the lead partner on the Enron audits in Houston, and placed three partners on leave. Four others have been stripped of their management responsibilities.Anderson which is battling to save its reputation worldwide following Enron's collapse into bankruptcy, revealed that Mr. Duncan had ordered the disposal of documents after ...

<p>Enron Corp. donated $420,000 to Democrats over a three-year period while heavily lobbying the Clinton administration to expedite passage of a 1997 global warming treaty that would have dramatically increased the firm's sales of natural gas.</p> <p>Federal and confidential corporate records show that after donating thousands of dollars in soft money and PAC donations beginning in 1995, Enron received easy access to President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.</p>

<p>A Texas law firm, asked by Enron Corp. to examine accusations by a company vice president that the firm was about to "implode" from improper accounting, told Enron last year that the claims did not warrant "a further widespread investigation."</p>