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

To: Ish who wrote (219971)	1/18/2002 7:08:17 PM
From: ThirdEye	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

Gramm's bill, dealing with an obscure financial instrument called over-the-counter derivatives, was contrary to the recommendations of a Presidential Commission which included Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Enron lobbied on behalf of the bill so heavily that Washington insiders called it "the Enron point." It had been stalled in the Senate when Gramm renamed it and tacked it to a must-sign bill in December 2000. Few noticed the new provision, which "took the buying and selling of electricity off the books," Slocum says. Energy trading migrated to Enrononline's secret exchange, where high prices were concealed from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC had just recently announced that California electric prices were not "just and reasonable," key wording meant to signal the price gougers that the reluctant agency might cap electric prices. The newly invisible trades were thus beyond the scrutiny of FERC, and Enron's revenues quadrupled in the next quarter. But FERC imposed a price cap in June, leaving Enron with futures contracts that cost it money. So the corporation concealed those losses with fancy bookkeeping. But the profits Enron made before that had to go somewhere, and the offshore accounts are the most likely place to look. Slocum notes that Enron's Byzantine corporate structure is anything but typical. Dynergy, a rival energy trader which backed out of a merger agreement with Enron last month, has just 12 subsidiaries, all registered in the United States, he says. ExxonMobil, with 147 separate subsidiaries, has fewer than a dozen domiciled in tax havens. Slocum admits he could be wrong. "I don't know all the facts because I can't get to it -- but we need Congress to investigate," he says. "There were key members of congress and the Bush administration that assisted Enron in its ability to do this. We need them to tell us what they know. And it starts with Wendy Gramm." newmassmedia.com

To: Ish who wrote (219971)	1/18/2002 7:31:15 PM
From: JEB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

U.S. House panel to probe ImClone Systems FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2002 5:59 PM - Reuters U.S. Company News (Adds comment from board member) By Toni Clarke NEW YORK, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A government committee said on Friday it will investigate allegations that ImClone Systems Inc. misled investors by hiding negative information about research into its experimental cancer drug Erbitux. The House Energy and Commerce Committee said it will seek records from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, ImClone (IMCL) and ImClone partner Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) , to establish the validity of ImClone's clinical research into Erbitux. Shares of ImClone fell $8.93, or 29.7 percent, to close at $21.15 on Nasdaq. The stock has plunged nearly 65 percent since Dec. 28, when the FDA refused to review what it considered a deficient marketing application for the drug. "It's not a good situation," said Brian Rye, an analyst for Raymond James & Associates. "A congressional investigation means more negative publicity for ImClone and Bristol-Myers, but particularly for ImClone since almost the whole value of the company is tied up in Erbitux." Over the past three weeks, close to a dozen lawsuits have been filed against ImClone by angry investors who claim the company made false or misleading statements about the prospects for Erbitux, an experimental treatment for colon cancer. Now the government is weighing in. "We have several serious concerns," said W.J. Tauzin, chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, in a letter to ImClone, Bristol-Myers and acting FDA Commissioner Bernard Schwetz. One concern, Tauzin said, is that ImClone failed to disclose negative information in a Dec. 28 press release in which it announced the FDA had rejected the Erbitux marketing application. The release contained "questionable descriptions" of the FDA's rejection letter and did not mention the crucial news that the agency believed a new clinical trial would be needed for Erbitux, Tauzin said. ImClone and Bristol-Myers declined to comment except to say they would cooperate with the investigation. But an ImClone board member and co-discoverer of Erbitux defended the drug. "I've been working on this for well over a decade, and we've been doing the clinical trials for a very long period of time," said Dr. John Mendelsohn. "This is a delay, this is not a turn-down. It's a delay in getting approved what we believe is an excellent drug, and we hope the data will speak for itself the next time around." The government committee also plans to look into whether ImClone's top management, including Chief Executive Samuel Waksal and Chief Operating Officer Harlan Waksal, his brother, sold shares in ImClone at a time they had reason to believe the drug would not be reviewed. "Adding to the controversy are sales of stock by ImClone executives in the weeks just before FDA issued the refusal-to-file letter," Tauzin said in his letter. On July 12, the Waksals borrowed a combined $33.9 million from New York-based ImClone in the form of interest-bearing promissory notes to exercise options and warrants on nearly 3 million shares of ImClone common stock, according to regulatory documents. They purchased the stock at about $8 a share when it was trading at nearly $41.60. Two months later Bristol-Myers paid $70 a share, or $1 billion, for a 20 percent stake in the company, and agreed to pay up to $1 billion more in milestone payments as Erbitux reached certain stages of development. Bristol-Myers has since lost about $640 million of its investment. ImClone has made consistently upbeat projections for the drug and for the company, telling investors repeatedly that they expected the drug to come before the FDA Oncology Drug Advisory Committee in February and the drug to be approved shortly thereafter. bigcharts.marketwatch.com{3A360524-5EA9-4061-80C7-2CFD426F8C71}&newsid=795852161&symb=IMCL&sid=8185