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To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (46875)1/23/2002 12:33:19 PM
From: stockman_scott  Respond to of 65232
 
<<it is intended to bankrupt organized crime from asset sales>>

jw: the perfect use for it is in the Enron case...IMO, Enron is a classic case of 'organized crime' in the white collar world -- but on a huge scale. Mr. Lay and company may have mixed in a little fraud and insider trading too.

Yet, I'm in favor of THE BIGGEST and BOLDEST fines and penalties that are possible. The Gov't must send a message that the Enron / Andersen behavior WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the future.

Stay tuned...we could have some interesting hearings and trials in the next few months.

Regards,

Scott



To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (46875)1/23/2002 1:49:01 PM
From: stockman_scott  Respond to of 65232
 
Some serious humor posted on an Enron Website...

<<Feudalism
You have two cows.
Your lord takes some of the milk.

Fascism
You have two cows.
The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.

Communism
You have two cows.
You must take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

Capitalism
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income

Enron
You have two cows.
You borrow 80% of the forward value of the two cows from your bank then buy another cow with 5% down and the rest financed by the seller on a note callable if your market cap goes below $20B at a rate 2 times prime. You now sell three cows to your publicly listed company, using letters
of credit opened by your brother-in-law at a 2nd bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more and this transaction process is upheld by your independent auditor and no Balance Sheet provided with the press release cows via the internet site COW (cows on web)...>>



To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (46875)1/23/2002 3:59:02 PM
From: stockman_scott  Respond to of 65232
 
Enron Europe creditors face $900 mn trading loss

January 23, 2002
1740 IST
Reddiff.com

European trading partners of stricken US energy group Enron face losses of about $900 million, an industry source close to the company told Reuters on Tuesday.

In the first firm indication of trading losses resulting from Enron's record-breaking bankruptcy, the industry source said London-based Enron Capital Trade Resources Ltd had outstanding liabilities of about a billion dollars.

Enron Europe's administrator, PricewaterhouseCoopers, was expected to recoup only about $100 million of that exposure from the settlement of ECTRL's outstanding contracts, the source said.

PWC declined to comment in detail but a company official, who requested anonymity, said creditors to ECTRL faced a "substantial shortfall" based on current estimates.

Houston-based Enron, once the world's largest energy trader, filed for bankruptcy nearly two months ago in the largest collapse in corporate history.

Enron Europe, based in London, was placed into PWC's administration in late November and 1,100 staff were laid off.

Two weeks before the company collapsed, a team from PWC held talks with Enron Europe's management on concerns about the US parent company's ability to support its credit in gas and power markets, the PWC official said.

ANALYSTS' FEARS BORNE OUT

The $900 million of losses match previous industry analysts estimates of the feared exposure for Enron's trading partners in Europe.

"It would be very difficult for all the European utilities to have got out and reduced their exposure to Enron," said Ben Tait, director of London-based energy consultancy Prospex.

"Enron was a gigantic business with 20-25 per cent of the market."

Enron traded power and gas in Europe with some 300 counterparties including many of the continent's utilities, oil majors, trading houses and banks that traded in energy.

At the time of its collapse, the company was sitting on around 250,000 open contracts in the forward markets, the official said.

One analyst said Enron had entered complex structured trades with banks and this may have inflated the losses.

Few companies so far have commented publicly on their exposure to Enron in Europe.

In November, Centrica Britain's largest gas supplier, said it could potentially lose £30 million on forward contracts with Enron.

German utility RWE said it could face losses of between €10 and €11 million. French energy giant TotalFinaElf said its exposure to Enron was about $25 million.

PWC said it had managed to settle with counterparties about 75 per cent of in-the-money, profitable, contracts held by ECTRL.

Part of ECTRL's position in the UK gas market was still being traded from the company's London headquarters, which has retained a skeleton staff of about 150, the PWC official said.

Separately, PWC partner Neville Kahn told Reuters that the auditor planned to hold a meeting of around 100 Enron Europe creditors in London on February 11 when losses are likely to be outlined. PWC would be writing to creditors imminently, another PWC official said.