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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (1445)	12/12/2001 8:26:29 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 15516

Let no participant be let off in Enron Scandal. "Andersen acknowledges financial reporting practices must change." Well those practices worked just fine until those Andersen Accounting firm cretins colluded with Enron. There's no excuse on Andersen's part. None on Enron's executives or even on the employees. They all HAD to know. I think CFOFastow is probably no longer among the living. Lawmakers Criticize Enron Executives By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lawmakers heaped criticism Wednesday on executives of collapsed Enron Corp. (news/quote), saying they enriched themselves through inside trading and slick financial gimmicks while running the energy-trading company into the ground. Accounting firm Arthur Andersen LLP, Enron's longtime auditor, defended its work for the company but acknowledged that financial reporting practices must change. Andersen's chief executive said the firm notified Enron's audit committee on Nov. 2 of ``possible illegal acts within the company.'' As Congress opened its investigation of one of the biggest corporate failures in history, no Enron officials attended the hearing of the House Financial Services subcommittees on capital markets and oversight. Kenneth Lay, the chairman and chief executive who is a friend of President Bush and a big campaign contributor, declined an invitation to appear. He said in a letter that he had to be at an Enron bankruptcy proceeding Wednesday. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which is investigating Enron and Andersen's auditing of its books, filed an action in federal court Wednesday seeking to compel Enron's former chief financial officer, Andrew Fastow, to comply with a subpoena the SEC issued to him on Oct. 31. Fastow was the lead architect of complex partnerships that allowed Enron to keep some $500 million in debt off its books and let executives profit from the arrangements. The SEC wants Fastow to produce documents and testify under oath as part of its inquiry. Fastow did not show up for a scheduled meeting with SEC attorneys on Wednesday, but he did appear at a press conference in New York beside David Boies, the prominent attorney who represented former Vice President Al Gore in last year's disputed election. The event was intended to quash speculation by some that Fastow may have fled the country. Fastow made no substantive comments during the appearance. Boies told reporters the former Enron executive would meet with the SEC once the two sides ``negotiate on a mutually agreeable date.'' Enron's swift descent into federal bankruptcy court left countless investors burned and thousands of employees out of work and with decimated retirement savings. ``Many people have been deeply hurt,'' said the chairman of the capital markets panel, Rep. Richard Baker, R-La. Enron executives were ``just having too much fun,'' he said. They cashed out more than $1 billion in company stock while ordinary employees were barred from selling it from their Enron-heavy 401(k) accounts as share prices plunged, Baker said. Worth more than $80 a year ago, Enron's stock has tumbled to less than a dollar a share. As a result, many employees were left ``penniless,'' AFL-CIO official Richard Trumka said at the hearing. Amid the company's strife, nearly 600 employees deemed critical to its operations received more than $100 million in bonuses last month as Enron faced a merger that unraveled and then bankruptcy. The politically connected company, which gave millions in campaign contributions to Bush's campaign and the Republican Party, was vilified by some Democratic lawmakers for exercising what they said was unwarranted influence over U.S. energy policy. Houston-based Enron, which only months ago was the nation's seventh-biggest company in revenue, has acknowledged it overstated profits for four years. The Securities and Exchange Commission warned Wednesday that all company executives and auditors must use accounting policies that are ``appropriately reasoned.'' ``Investors increasingly deserve and demand full transparency,'' the SEC said. The agency itself faced questioning by some lawmakers of its handling of the Enron case. They asked Robert Herdman, the SEC's chief accountant, why the agency did not become concerned early this year when Enron executives dumped millions of dollars of stock. The SEC's first action came on Oct. 17 -- a letter to Enron requesting more information after it reported big third-quarter losses, Herdman noted. He said recent accounting irregularities by big corporations ``may shake investors' confidence in our system of financial reporting and our capital markets.'' Herdman said the SEC plans next year to adopt rules tightening disclosure requirements for companies. Joseph Berardino, Andersen's chief executive, said the accounting firm ``will have to change ... the accounting profession will have to reform itself. Our system of regulation and discipline will have to be improved.'' Enron also is under investigation by the Justice Department. The Labor Department is looking into Enron's handling of its employees' retirement benefit plans. To solicit information about alleged misconduct at Enron, the senior Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee has set up an Internet tip line at house.gov ------