"God like absolute control" and the ability to manipulate a market are two different thing, as you point out. Can you name one earthly thing that someone has "god like control" over? I can't, God's control is always greater over anything than any mere mortals.
The following article is the first one I ran across when I did a quick search looking for an article I read not long ago. It does have admissions of manipulation in it by Enron employees. The article I was searching for was one which said people working at the market some time before the crisis observed that someone had made the market move from a few pennies per whatever the unit energy trades in to 999 dollars several times in one day. There wasn't much thought about this at the time but later they figured it was done by Enron as a test of their powers while they were plotting their scheme.
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LATEST NEWS
February 5, 2003
Former Enron trader admits manipulating California's energy market
Jeffrey Richter, the former head of Enron's Short-Term California energy trading desk, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with Enron's schemes to manipulate California's energy markets during the state's power crisis of 2000-01.
Mr. Richter also pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office during the continuing investigation into fraudulent trading practices.
The guilty pleas by Mr. Richter, 33, of Houston, Texas, mark the second criminal conviction secured as a result of fraudulent trading in California's spot markets for electricity during the power crisis.
In 2000, Mr. Richter supervised the group at Enron's West Power Division responsible for trading in California's "day-ahead" and "hour-ahead" energy, ancillary services and transmission markets. The charges against Mr. Richter are based on his and other Enron traders' criminal manipulation of the California energy markets.
Mr. Richter's plea acknowledges that the conduct was committed in part to increase prices in at least one of the spot markets operated by the California Independent Service Operator, the U.S. Attorney's office says.
In pleading guilty, the defendant has admitted his participation on behalf of Enron in two fraudulent schemes devised by Enron's traders, known internally within Enron as "Load Shift" and "Get Shorty."
According to Mr. Richter's plea agreement, Enron's "Load Shift" trading scheme involved the intentional filing by Enron's traders of false power schedules designed to create the appearance of "congestion" on California's transmission lines. These false schedules were designed to increase prices in Cal-ISO's "congestion" market, and permitted Enron to profit through its ownership of transmission rights on the lines and by offering to "relieve" the congestion through subsequent schedules.
The plea agreement says that under Enron's "Get Shorty" trading scheme, the company's traders fabricated and sold emergency back-up power (known as ancillary services) to Cal-ISO, received payment, then canceled the schedules and covered their commitments by purchasing through a cheaper market closer to the time of delivery.
As a result of these false schedules and bids, Mr. Richter has admitted that he and co-conspirators at Enron were able to manipulate prices in certain markets, arbitrage price differences between the markets, and obtain congestion fees in excess of what they would have received with accurate schedules and bids, according to the plea agreement.
"This is the second top Enron trader who has now admitted that Enron's manipulation of the California energy markets was illegal," says U.S. Attorney Kevin V. Ryan.
Mr. Richter faces a maximum penalty on each of the two counts of five years imprisonment and up to a $250,000 fine, plus restitution when he is sentenced.
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