Enron disguised loans as income with banks' help, report says
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, March 7, 2003
HOUSTON -- Enron Corp. inappropriately counted $5 billion it raised in the four years leading to its December 2001 bankruptcy with the knowledge of two major banks that played "significant roles" in the transactions, a court-appointed examiner said.
Atlanta attorney Neil Batson, appointed by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez to examine Enron, said in a lengthy interim report Wednesday that Enron repeatedly misrepresented its financial condition using a handful of accounting techniques to disguise loans as income.
In a 138-page summary of his findings, Batson wrote that Citibank and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. -- both based in New York -- helped Enron devise the strategies, known as "prepay transactions."
"Both Citibank and J.P. Morgan knew that Enron accounted for its obligations under the prepay transactions as liabilities from price risk management activities rather than debt," Batson wrote. "They also believed that Enron reported the cash as cash flow from operating activities rather than financing activities.
"Nevertheless, both lenders recognized that the prepay transactions were essentially loans."
Neither bank has acknowledged anything was wrong with their relationships. Merrill Lynch & Co. also has not admitted any wrongdoing, but it did reach an $80 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that concluded an investigation into two 1999 transactions with Enron.
"The examiner's report shows the scope and size of the fraud perpetrated by Enron and condemns the accounting techniques repeatedly approved by (auditor) Arthur Andersen and Enron's other advisers," Citigroup said in a statement released yesterday.
"In Citigroup's transactions with Enron, Citigroup relied on Enron, its accountants and advisers, to report these transactions properly."
A J.P. Morgan Chase spokesman in New York declined comment on the Batson report.
The report, which includes 2,000 pages of appendices, also dealt with how much the company -- and in turn, creditors -- could expect to get back from the sullied energy trader. Batson concludes perhaps more than $2.9 billion could be collected by voiding unethical asset transfers and going after money improperly segregated from Enron prior to its bankruptcy.
"There is nothing improper about the use of structured finance and SPEs to achieve and report business results," Batson stated. "Enron, however, used structured finance to report results it had not achieved."
In his summary, Batson told the bankruptcy court that Enron could seek to recover more than $74 million from its former chairman and chief executive Kenneth Lay. Lay received the money in loans from the company, which he repaid with Enron stock "at a time when Enron was presumed to be insolvent," the report said.
Lay's spokeswoman, Kelly Kimberly, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Batson said Enron might also be able to get back $53 million in deferred compensation paid to "certain employees" in the month leading to its Dec. 2, 2001, filing.
Enron's accounting was audited and approved by Arthur Andersen, the Chicago-based accounting powerhouse convicted last summer of obstruction of justice in the Enron investigation. The firm essentially dissolved afterward.
The only former top Enron executive charged with a crime so far is one-time chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, who prosecutors said masterminded the complicated accounting sleight of hand that brought down the company. Charged with fraud, money laundering and conspiracy -- with more charges possibly on the way -- he is free on $5 million bond as he awaits trial.
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