Former Enron exec found dead
Officials: J. Clifford Baxter died of apparent suicide
12:48 PM EST,January 25, 2002
By Kristen Hays, The Associated Press
HOUSTON -- A former Enron Corp. executive who challenged the company's questionable financial practices and resigned last May was found shot to death in a car today, an apparent suicide, authorities said.
Police in the suburb, Sugar Land, confirmed the death of 43-year-old J. Clifford Baxter, a former Enron vice chairman. He was shot in the head.
"We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and colleague, Cliff Baxter. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends," the company said in a statement.
Spokesman Mark Palmer had no additional comment.
Baxter was vice chairman of Enron when he resigned in May 2001, several months before the energy company's collapse.
Baxter was identified by name in the explosive warning that Enron executive Sherron Watkins wrote last August to company chairman Ken Lay.
"Cliff Baxter complained mightily to (then-CEO Jeff) Skilling and all who would listen about the inappropriateness of our transactions with LJM," one of the partnerships that kept hundreds of millions of dollars in debt off Enron's books.
Watkins identified Baxter in a section of her letter stating there is "a veil of secrecy around LJM and Raptor," another entity involved in the partnerships.
Watkins' letter to Lay stated that "we will implode in a wave of accounting scandals" unless the company halted practices that eventually sent it into bankruptcy.
His body was found at 2:23 a.m. today in a car parked in between two medians in a residential area in Sugar Land. He was in the driver's seat of the vehicle and a police officer stopped to check on him after noticing the parked car.
Jim Richard, a Fort Bend County justice of the peace, ruled Baxter's death a suicide.
Baxter was one of 29 former and current Enron executives and board members named as defendants in a federal lawsuit. Plaintiffs' lawyers said the executives made $1.1 billion by selling Enron stock between October 1998 and November 2001.
It said Baxter had sold 577,436 shares for $35.2 million.
At the time his resignation was announced, Skilling said Baxter had made "a tremendous contribution to Enron's evolution, particularly as a member of the team that built Enron's wholesale business."
It said his primary reason for resigning was to spend more time with his family.
Baxter had joined Enron in 1991 and was chairman and CEO of Enron North America prior to being named chief strategy officer for Enron Corp. in June 2000 and vice chairman in October 2000, the company said.
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