Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dr. Doktor who wrote (216882)	1/10/2002 7:27:31 PM
From: Ish	Respond to of 769667

Right on the money there.

To: Dr. Doktor who wrote (216882)	1/10/2002 7:29:16 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 769667

Ethical issue seen unlikely in officials' Enron talks By Kevin Drawbaugh WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Bush administration officials likely did not commit an ethical breach by talking to Enron Corp. (NYSE:ENE - news) as it was collapsing, but were facing questions about their policy judgment in the affair, ethics experts and lawmakers said on Thursday. Kenneth Lay, chairman of the fallen energy trading giant, talked on the phone with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Don Evans last fall, the White House said. In the conversations with O'Neill on Oct. 28 and Nov. 8, Lay discussed Enron's troubles, a Treasury official said. ``I thought it was business as usual,'' O'Neill told CNBC on Thursday. ``I get calls every day from the big players in the world. Enron was the biggest trader of energy in the world. So I was not surprised at all that I would get a call saying, hey, we've got a problem over here and you should know about it.'' In just a matter of weeks last year, Enron went from Wall Street stardom to the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history on Dec. 2. Its downfall threw thousands out of work and hammered investors. Under ethics laws, O'Neill and Evans were probably not obligated to report their conversations with Lay -- as long as they had no knowledge of any illegal acts, experts said. ``I don't think there's any explicit ethical requirement for them to report something,'' said Steven Cohen, a professor at Columbia University and an expert on ethics. Jerry Bernstein, white collar crime unit chief at the law firm of Holland & Knight and a former federal prosecutor, agreed. However, if O'Neill or Evans were aware of any possible illegalities, they would have had to act, he said. ``They'd have to formally advise the Department of Justice that they had been advised there was potential illegality at this company,'' Bernstein said. The Justice Department said on Wednesday it had opened a criminal probe of Enron. The Securities and Exchange Commission has been probing the firm 10 weeks, while five congressional committees and the Labor Department are also investigating. Enron's long-time auditor, the accounting firm Andersen, has said that it advised Houston, Texas-based Enron of ``possible illegal acts'' inside the company in November. Apart from ethical issues, administration officials were facing questions about their policy judgment in not reporting more widely what they learned about Enron from Lay. ``There may be a basis for saying they were given early warning and that, as a matter of their responsibility as cabinet secretaries, they should have lit a fire under everybody and said, look, this is about to happen. But that would be more of a policy judgment, rather than an ethical judgment,'' Columbia's Cohen said. Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who already had been seeking information about contacts between the White House energy task force and Enron, charged that the Lay telephone calls indicated the White House knew Enron was on the brink of disaster before the company's own employees and shareholders. ``It is now clear the White House had knowledge that Enron was likely to collapse but did nothing to try to protect innocent employees and shareholders who ultimately lost their life savings,'' Waxman said in a statement. biz.yahoo.com

To: Dr. Doktor who wrote (216882)	1/10/2002 7:47:05 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Respond to of 769667

Doc, Enron is a another DEM boobs dangle. I believe they are totally out of touch with the real folks and this will be just another song of their stupidity. dashie with tax cut cause recession and enron smear by fabricated association. They just don't get that they are dealing with the most admired man in HISTORY, PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH. That's why we have all the vacant liberal loonies toon posting reams of crap on this thread. They are in such pain. What a desperate bunch. tom watson tosiwmee