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

To: TigerPaw who wrote (948)	1/22/2002 12:26:25 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 5185

You think employees will talk? Enron still shredding documents! Incredible! Congress had better suponea W's official records when he was Governor of Texas! - Mephisto 01/21/2002 - Updated 11:19 PM ET Enron accused of more shredding By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY HOUSTON — An attorney who filed a shareholder lawsuit against Enron said Monday that the company has been shredding documents as recently as last week. Attorney Paul Howes produced a boxful of shredded documents to reporters that he says were given to him by a terminated employee. He said he plans to introduce the evidence at a hearing in federal court today in Houston that seeks to prevent Enron or its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, from destroying more documents. usatoday.com

To: TigerPaw who wrote (948)	1/22/2002 1:43:16 AM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5185

Bush to Lay: What Was Your Name Again? January 15, 2002 Los Angeles Times By Robert Scheer: If you believe President Bush, Kenneth Lay--one of his top financial backers and his "good friend"--was merely an equal-opportunity corrupter of our political system, buying off Democrats and Republicans as needed. It is a convenient claim designed to unlink Bush from the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history. But, as the good ol' boys in Texas--and now Bush spokesman Ari Fleisher--like to say, "That dog won't hunt." On Friday, Bush attempted to distance himself from the Enron scandal by stating that CEO Lay "was a supporter of Ann Richards in my run in 1994," obscuring the fact that Lay gave Bush three times as much money as he did the Democratic gubernatorial incumbent whom Bush was trying to unseat. Bush added that he really did not get to "know" Lay--the man he nicknamed "Kenny Boy"--until after he won the governor's race. I can't speak to the varying levels of intimacy of their relationship, but Bush had considerable contact with Lay two years earlier when the Enron leader served as the chair of the host committee for the 1992 Republican convention in Houston, where Bush the senior was nominated for his second term as president. At that time, Investor's Daily reported that "recently, Lay has turned Enron into a corporate bastion for the GOP." After the elder Bush's defeat, the Bush family switched its political ambitions to George W.'s prospects for governor, and Lay came up with the first of many contributions to that effort. Lay's loyal support of the Bushes may have been gratitude for the decisive role that the first Bush administration played in Enron's meteoric rise. Building on the Republican-engineered deregulation of the electricity industry that began in the 1980s, Enron got a huge boost during the first Bush administration with passage of the 1992 Energy Act, which forced utility companies to carry Enron's electricity on their wires. In fact, Lay publicly thanked Bush with a column in the Dallas Morning News a week before the 1992 election. Calling Bush "the energy president," Lay wrote that "just six months after George Bush became president, he directed Energy Secretary James Watkins to lead the development of a new energy strategy." That resulted in the legislation making Enron's exponential growth possible. Lay was effusive in expressing his gratitude, writing that the Bush "strategy is the most ambitious and sweeping energy plan ever proposed." That gift to Enron was coupled with a major exemption granted by Wendy Gramm, then chair of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in the Bush administration, an exemption that permitted Enron to begin lucratively trading energy derivatives. Gramm then joined the board of directors of Enron and served on its auditors committee, where much of the false reporting now being exposed seems to be centered. Her powerful role in the company did not stop her husband, Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), from pushing through legislation that further weakened government oversight of Enron's activities. After Bush the elder's defeat in 1992, the ties between Enron and the Bush camp grew even stronger. In March 1993, Enron hired Bush's Commerce secretary, Robert A. Mosbacher, and his secretary of State, James A. Baker III, to line up contracts for Enron around the world. As Enron's representative, Baker--later George W.'s Florida election strategist--even went on a trip accompanying the ex-president to Kuwait to do big business in the nation Bush had fought the Gulf War to save. The trip was criticized by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who said that he had turned down millions in proffered deals to do business in Kuwait after the war. "I represent 540,000 American men and women, not some private company," said Schwarzkopf. "They were willing to die in Kuwait. Why should I profit from their sacrifice?" A decade later, the new Bush administration turned immediately to Lay to get his bearings on an energy policy. Lay met with Vice President Dick Cheney's energy group six times. This was no surprise, given the close ties between Lay and Bush during the latter's days as Texas governor. Consider, for example, that as governor, Bush did not hesitate to call then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and assure him that Lay--then eager to deregulate Pennsylvania's electricity market--was the finest of men, representing the most worthy of companies. Keeping true to family traditions, the president has always aggressively supported far-reaching deregulation of utilities--it is, in fact, his political mantra--and Enron appears to be the biggest benefactor of that philosophy. Whether the contacts between them were actually illegal and not merely an egregious betrayal of Enron's employees, shareholders and consumers, it remains for the eight investigations planned or underway to reveal what Bush and White House insiders knew, and when they knew it. latimes.com.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (948)	1/22/2002 1:44:01 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 5185

Good article by Scheer. I found your post on the IBush Forum. latimes.com.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (948)	1/22/2002 7:48:24 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5185

They are still shredding, TP! Won't someone stop it?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (948)	1/22/2002 7:49:14 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 5185

Enron shredding continuing, claims worker Mark Tran Tuesday January 22, 2002 The Guardian Documents at Enron were being destroyed at its Houston headquarters as recently as last week, according to executives at the bankrupt US energy company. The revelation came from Maureen Castaneda, who was Enron's director of foreign exchange and sovereign risk management until two weeks ago. She told ABC News and several US newspapers that documents were shredded in the accounting department in Houston after federal investigators had begun an investigation last October into possible illegalities at the energy giant. In interviews with ABC and the Wall Street Journal, Ms Castaneda, whose office was across from the accounting department on the 19th floor, said shredding of documents apparently continued through the middle of January, when she left the company after losing her job. According to Ms Castaneda and another employee, the shredded documents appeared to be connected to controversial partnerships used by Enron to camouflage debts and inflate profits. Ms Castaneda reportedly has in her possession shreds of Enron accounting documents marked "confidential" and dated December 2001. Some of the strips contain the names of the secretive partnerships such as Jedi and Raptor. Ms Castaneda, who said she had planned to use the shredded paper for packing material, is a plaintiff in one of the dozens of employee and shareholder suits against Enron. Once America's seventh largest company, Enron filed for bankruptcy on December 2. The largest bankruptcy in US history has triggered soul-searching in the accounting business about proper financial procedures, the need to maintain distance with clients, and a wider debate on the influence of corporate money on US politics. Enron shot to prominence as an energy trading company when George Bush was the governor of Texas and Bill Clinton was in the White House. Enron contributed heavily to Mr Bush's political coffers, while he was governor and when he ran for president in 2000. The US justice department and several congressional committees have launched investigations into Enron and the destruction of documents has emerged as a key issue, not only at Enron but at its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. Enron last week fired Arthur Andersen as the two blamed each other for Enron's financial meltdown. Congressional hearings begin tomorrow with key Andersen executives expected to appear in an effort to cast light on the destruction of thousands of documents. Robert Bennett, the high-powered Washington lawyer hired by Enron, said the company was investigating the latest allegations on shredding documents. "In October 2001 the company issued several directives to all Enron employees worldwide that all relevant documents should be preserved in light of pending litigation," Mr Bennett said. "If anyone violated those directives, they will be dealt with appropriately." The company said that it had sent employees four email messages on document retention since October 25, most recently last Monday. In a separate development, the New York Times reported an internal Andersen document showed as early as November 2000 that it had concluded Enron's internet services unit, considered to be crucial to the company's growth, had poor controls. There was a "high risk" that financial results in the unit would be misrepresented because of them, it said. guardian.co.uk