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Non-Tech : The ENRON Scandal -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (15)	1/10/2002 12:21:50 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5185

Jan. 9, 2002, 10:56PM Judge declines to freeze profits of Enron officers By TOM FOWLER Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle A federal judge said Wednesday she has the authority to freeze hundreds of millions of dollars in assets that Enron Corp. insiders earned through selling their stock, but declined to do so. U.S. District Court Judge Lee Rosenthal cited a 1999 Supreme Court opinion for her authority to freeze the assets of the 29 Enron executives and board members named in a lawsuit filed on behalf of a number of worker retirement funds. But she ruled there were insufficient grounds for issuing such an order based on the evidence and arguments she has heard so far. In her ruling Rosenthal wrote she would not order the restraining order on the assets " ... without allegations or evidence that each, or any, defendant has, or is likely to, conceal the stock sales proceeds or profits or place them beyond reach, absent immediate judicial intervention." Enron officials were not immediately available for comment. The lawsuit, filed by New York-based Amalgamated Bank in November, alleges that Enron executives and board members sold $1.1 billion in Enron stock over the past three years while not disclosing that the stock price was overvalued. Amalgamated Bank manages pension funds that hold Enron stock. The lawsuit claims the company officials were aware of accounting problems that led to inflated earnings reports and higher stock prices. In November 2001, Enron reported it was adjusting its earnings for the past 4 1/2 years because of bookkeeping errors related to investment partnerships it had formed. That included a $586 million reduction in net income, adding $2.5 billion in debt to its books and a 77-cent reduction in earnings per share. "We are gratified that we have cleared this important legal hurdle," said Amalgamated's attorney Bill Lerach in a statement Wednesday. "We are also pleased that the court has held open the possibility that we may conduct discovery to obtain additional evidence to justify the requested injunction." In a Dec. 7 hearing, Lerach asked the judge to freeze the assets of the Enron insiders, including Chairman and CEO Ken Lay and former Chief Executive Officer Jeff Skilling, claiming there was a danger they would flee the country with the profits from exercising their stock options. Lay netted $16.1 million in stock sales for the first nine months of 2001, according to data compiled by Thomson Financial/First Call, while Skilling collected $15.5 million. Attorneys representing Enron denied that their clients would do so and challenged the court's authority to freeze assets. In her ruling this week, Rosenthal ordered Amalgamated to file a brief in support of its request for expedited discovery into the case by Jan. 23 and for Enron and its executives to file a response by Feb. 6.

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (15)	1/10/2002 1:46:19 PM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5185

Cheney claims that he never spoke of Enron's financial situation so that leads me to believe there is known criminal behavior involved because he is purposely distancing himself from that area!! He is pre-emptively pointing the finger by claiming that is not something he spoke about!!! LOL Bush is asking for an investigation into the employees options restrictions so we also know that is where further criminal activity will be found!! Look directly at the areas where Bush and Cheney are trying to separate themselves from Enron..........that's where they know the criminal activity is!! LOL