The Enron board, the Enron Executives and Shrub.....
all a bunch of crooks and to think, Shrub is going to give a speech on Tuesday to "slap" their hands:
This is what the Enron board allowed:
According to the report, evidence collected by the Senate panel showed:
¶That the board had warnings that the company's accounting was very risky. In February 1999, for example, the panel found that the board's audit committee was told by auditors from Arthur Andersen that Enron's accounting methods were "at the edge" and "pushing the limits." Also, in May 2000, the board's finance committee was told that partnerships headed by the company's chief financial officer, who at the time was Andrew S. Fastow, had produced a "remarkable" $2 billion in "funds flow" for Enron in just six months, yet no director asked how this had been accomplished.
¶That the board, "with little debate," granted Mr. Fastow a waiver allowing his partnerships to do business with the company in a manner that ultimately enriched him but helped lead to Enron's collapse. Had the board simply reviewed the partnership documents — one director even received them in the mail as an investment pitch — they would have noticed that two other senior Enron finance executives, Ben F. Glisan Jr. and Michael J. Kopper, eventually joined Mr. Fastow in the partnerships, though neither man obtained the required waiver.
¶That the board "knowingly allowed Enron to move at least $27 billion or almost 50 percent of its assets off balance sheet." One "accounting gimmick" used to artificially bolster Enron's financial statements was the creation of partnerships known as Raptors, which directors knew carried huge risks for the company. Among other things, a chart shown to the board's finance committee in April 2001 outlined how Enron could be forced to issue tens of millions of new shares, if its stock price declined, because of these transactions.
¶That the board allowed senior executives to enrich themselves improperly. For example, the report cited how the former chairman, Kenneth L. Lay, effectively sold $77 million in company stock by "abusing" a line of credit, allowing him to delay the disclosures normally required for such sales |
