The Enron Connection, Continued
"Enron contributed $736,800 to George W. Bush over the past eight years, his single largest contributor."
"Of the twenty largest contributors to George W. Bush's Presidential campaign, fully half had major links to Enron; indeed, five of his seven largest seven contributors were connected to Enron."
"Vinson & Elkins, a Texas law firm, is number two. Vinson & Elkins is Enron's law firm. The firm prepared the partnership documents for Enron's apparently fraudulent operations, which moved debt off book, falsely inflated profit statements, and enriched several top executives of Enron (as well as several investment firms which were also among Bush's major contributors). It was this law firm which, when the first whistles were blown, did an 'outside' review of Enron's partnerships and subsidiaries and found their operations acceptable."
"Number four among big donors is Anderson Worldwide, corporate parent of Enron's accounting firm, Arthur Anderson. No one needs to be reminded that Arthur Anderson oversaw Enron's books and gave their seal of approval to the validity of Enron's corporate reports. Nor that Anderson's consulting branch help Enron shape its devious dealings."
"Morgan, Stanley, Dean Witter & Co. is number five. Morgan Stanley was a major investor in Enron's LJM2 subsidiary. The chicanery of LJM2, of course, played a truly major role in necessitating Enron's $1.2 billion in restatement of shareholder equity and its overstatement of earnings by nearly $600 million - the proximate causes of its implosion and bankruptcy."
"Three of the big-name Wall Street firms worked on complex deals for either Enron or its many related entities: Credit Suisse First Boston, Citigroup's Salomon Smith Barney, and Bank of America. They were, respectively, George W. Bush's second, ninth and eleventh largest contributors."
"Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee investigating Enron, revealed that Enron had promised bond-sale business to Merrill Lynch & Co. in exchange for its investments in some of Enron's questionable partnerships. Merrill Lynch, the nation's biggest brokerage firm, also helped Enron raise nearly $400 million from pension funds and other big investors for one of the partnerships. Merrill Lynch was the sixth largest donor to Bush's presidential campaign."
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