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Strategies & Market Trends : Zeev's Turnips - No Politics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: puborectalis who wrote (26412)	2/3/2002 7:29:23 AM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 99280

Enron executives 'pocketed' millions Top Enron executives took millions of dollars "they should never have received", an Enron internal report has claimed. The authors of this report, whose independence has already been questioned, were hand-picked by Enron's board. Their conclusions appear to be extremely self-serving An elaborate scheme involving multiple partnerships - which hid Enron's debts, allowed it to overstate profits by £1bn and were the key to its collapse - allowed this to happen, according to the report. The report claims former chief executive Kenneth Lay personally approved the partnership set-up, though does not accuse him of making any financial gains. The report also says accounting firm Andersen, Enron's former auditor, billed the company $5.7m "above and beyond its regular audit fee" for helping to set up the ill-fated partnerships. The 217-page report, released late on Saturday, was published by a special investigative committee set up by Enron's board after it filed for bankruptcy on 2 December. Andersen refutes claims The findings were called "extremely self-serving" by Andersen, which Enron dismissed as auditor after the biggest bankruptcy in US history. Lay accused of authorising partnership set-up The report claimed Enron board "cannot be faulted for failing to act" on important information on the partnership deals which was withheld from them, but criticises the board for not asking more questions about the transactions. "The authors of this report, whose independence has already been questioned, were hand-picked by Enron's board," said Andersen spokesman Charlie Leonard. The report, complied by Enron director William Powers, dean of the University of Texas School of Law, also said committee investigators had only limited access to Enron audit work papers of Andersen. "The report falsely states that Andersen did not cooperate with the authors. On the contrary, the authors rebuffed several attempts by Andersen to provide input to the report," said Mr Leonard. Big stakes According to the report, former Enron chief financial officer Andrew Fastow pocketed at least $30m, another executive, Michael Kopper, made at least $10m, while four other executives took from several hundred thousand dollars to one million. Meanwhile, more than 4,000 workers have lost their jobs, and thousands more have lost their retirement savings in company stock which has become all but worthless. Enron rank-and-file employees have been prevented from selling their fast depreciating stock holdings, while top executives got rid of them way before the shares tumbled. Fresh fodder The report was certain to provide fresh material for Enron hearings next week in Congress, at which former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay was set to appear on Monday. "I'll save all comment on the report for my congressional testimony," said Mr Powers in a statement. Enron is under investigation by nine congressional committees, the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Labor Department.