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

To: KLP who wrote (679)	1/25/2002 1:19:25 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3602

More info. on Enron's Cliff Baxter... msnbc.com The mention of Baxter in the Watkins-Lay Memo: " “Cliff Baxter complained mightily to Skilling and all who would listen about the inappropriateness of our transactions,” " BAXTER, 43, WAS vice chairman of Enron when he resigned in May 2001, several months before the energy company’s collapse. Sugar Land police department spokeswoman Patricia Whitty said Baxter was found inside his car early on Friday with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head, and a suicide note at his side. There were no apparent signs of foul play, she said. Enron confirmed the death in a short statement: "We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and colleague, Cliff Baxter." Enron spokesman Mark Palmer had no additional comment. The Enron Fiasco A company's rise and fall • Former Enron executive Baxter commits suicide • Enron-type accounting problems widespread, ex-SEC chief says • WSJ: Hit for J.P. Morgan could be huge • Enron was warned about misleading investors • WSJ: Enron execs' benefits kept flowing • Full coverage Baxter’s body was found at 2:23 a.m. local time Friday in between two medians in a residential area in Sugar Land. He was in the driver’s seat of the vehicle and a police officer stopped to check on him after noticing the parked car. Jim Richard, a Fort Bend County justice of the peace, ruled Baxter’s death a suicide mid-morning Friday. “We don’t have any other indication other than it being suicide,” said Sugar Land police Capt. David Marcaurele. Baxter was one of 29 former and current Enron executives and board members named as defendants in a federal lawsuit. Plaintiffs’ lawyers said the executives made $1.1 billion by selling Enron stock between October 1998 and November 2001. It said Baxter had sold 577,436 shares for $35.2 million. Baxter had reportedly feuded with then-Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling over the propriety of off-balance sheet transactions that hid billions in debt and ultimately triggered the once-mighty Houston company’s spiral into the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. “Cliff Baxter complained mightily to Skilling and all who would listen about the inappropriateness of our transactions,” Enron whistle-blower Sherron Watkins wrote to Chairman and CEO Ken Lay, who resigned on Wednesday, in an Aug. 14 letter. Watkins identified Baxter in a section of her letter stating there is “a veil of secrecy around LJM and Raptor,” another entity involved in the partnerships. Watkins’ letter to Lay stated that “we will implode in a wave of accounting scandals” unless the company halted practices that eventually sent it into bankruptcy.

To: KLP who wrote (679)	1/25/2002 1:24:09 PM
From: The Duke of URL©	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3602

Aren't they culpable at all??? The general rule is that the attorney for Enron represented enron, they did not pretend to represent the investor as did the accountants. They do not issue their opinions to you and you do not rely on them to advise you. They do not by any stretch of the imagination represent you, they have no duty nor liability to you. If they issued an opinion to you and you reasonably relied on it, then you may have a shot at them.....The "law firm" that issued the document save memo, was the litigation department of the accounting firm.

To: KLP who wrote (679)	1/25/2002 1:29:34 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3602

Enron's Moral Lessons acton.org <<...This breach of the public trust between the company and its shareholders cannot begin to be restored until moral accountability is achieved and restored. Sadly, the respected law firm of Vinson & Elkins has continued to aid Enron executives in their shaky moral reasoning by affirming the very practices that led to the company's demise. In a report obtained by the Wall Street Journal, Vinson & Elkins attorneys argue that "Enron's practice of forming special-purpose entities to keep debt off the books was creative and aggressive, and that no one has reason to believe that it is inappropriate from a technical standpoint." It might well be accurate to say that company executives are correct from a "technical standpoint," but it is clear that many shareholders found the company's practices "inappropriate," even if corporate executives were legal from a "technical standpoint." Certainly, the loss of confidence in and financial collapse of the company indicates that something was "inappropriate" in their conduct of Enron's business...>> _____________________ btw, Enron's outside counsel became very wealthy off their largest client. Vinson & Elkins took in over $30 Million from Enron in the last year and they clearly will be sued by the class action lawyers. In fact, they have already obtained their own counsel. Its a big scam -- these lawyers were probably golf buddies with Ken Lay BUT THEY FAILED TO PROVIDE ENRON WITH HONEST AND ETHICAL LEGAL ADVICE relating to their business transactions and their accounting practices. This firm will most likely go bankrupt and its reputation has already been destroyed. Who would want to use Enron's outside legal cousel..?