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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nevada who wrote (9109)	2/6/2002 2:51:12 PM
From: Sir Auric Goldfinger	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 19428

Secretaries Say Enron Had Them Pose As Traders In 1998 2002-02-06 13:00 (New York) By Jason Leopold Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LOS ANGELES (Dow Jones)--Some current and former employees of Enron Energy Services, the retail energy unit of Enron Corp. (ENRNQ), say the company asked them to pose as busy electricity and natural gas sales representatives one day in 1998 so the Enron unit could impress Wall Street analysts visiting its Houston headquarters. More than a dozen former and current Enron Energy Services staff who spoke to Dow Jones Newswires said Enron executives rushed about 75 employees, including secretaries and actual sales representatives, down to an empty trading floor on the sixth floor and told them to act as if they were trying to sell energy contracts to businesses over the phone. "When we went down to the sixth floor, I remember we had to take the stairs so the analysts wouldn't see us," said Kim Garcia, who at the time was an administrative assistant for Enron Energy Services and was laid off last December. "We brought some of our personal stuff, like pictures, to make it look like the area was lived in. There were a bunch of trading desks on the sixth floor, but the desks were totally empty. Some of the computers didn't even work, so we worked off of our laptops. When the analysts arrived, we had to make believe we were on the phone buying and selling electricity and natural gas. The whole thing took like 10 minutes." Penny Marksberry - who also worked as an Enron Energy Services administrative assistant in 1998 and was laid off last December - and two employees who still work at the unit also said they were told to act as if they were trying to sell contracts. "They actually brought in computers and phones and they told us to act like we were typing or talking on the phone when the analysts were walking through," Marksberry said. "They told us it was very important for us to make a good impression and if the analysts saw that the operation was disorganized, they wouldn't give the company a good rating." Enron Confirms Employees Moved Peggy Mahoney, Enron Energy Services' spokeswoman, confirmed that some employees were told to move to sixth floor so it would appear to be occupied and busy for a visit by 150 analysts from Wall Street firms who were in town for a convention. But she said it was just a handful of employees who went down to the sixth floor, not 75, and that the company didn't ask anyone to pose as traders or sales representatives. "We weren't trying to mislead anyone," Mahoney said. "There were some employees who were moved down there. They were told to just sit there. I don't know why. Analysts were brought in, and we showed them our operation. We were just showing them how we structured deals and contracts." Mahoney couldn't confirm the exact date of the analyst visit, but said it happened as the unit was in the middle of signing a contract with General Cable. Enron announced that deal on June 30, 1998. One analyst based in Houston recalled the visit to Enron's headquarters, where analysts were bused following a meeting at the Four Seasons hotel in June 1998. Analysts were led around by Ken Lay, then Enron's chairman and chief executive, and the EES floor appeared busy with actual work, he said. "The big push then was EES and retail electricity in California," the analyst said, asking that his name be withheld because his bank still conducts business with Enron. "The trading floor looked fully staffed. There was a presentation in a little auditorium right where EES was operating. It looked like people were very busy. We didn't interact with any of the employees on the floor." A number of the other analysts currently covering Enron weren't following the company in 1998. Of those that were, some didn't recall the specific company visit or weren't available for comment. Need To Show 'Warm Bodies Working' Enron Energy Services was set up in late 1997 to sell energy and advisory services to large consumers that had been freed or were expected to be freed from their local utilities by newly minted deregulation laws. The unit was still small in 1998. Some of its employees shared space with other units on the ninth floor, and others were spread throughout the building while the sixth floor was being fashioned as a permanent home, employees said. Enron executives including Lay escorted the analysts through the floor and returned later to tell the employees that they had done a good job, said Garcia, the administrative assistant. "I think a bunch of us asked him why did we just do this, and he said the analysts needed to see a bunch of warm bodies working so Enron could get a good credit rating," Garcia said. "He said the trading part of Enron was the company's bread and butter." Earl Silbert, a lawyer representing Lay, declined to comment specifically on the employees' claims, saying they didn't deserve a response. Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee released a memo e-mailed to Lay in August 2001 warning that Enron Energy Services' financial results were being misrepresented. The memo was sent by Margaret Ceconi, who worked for the unit for nine months. Mahoney said at the time the memo "does not represent all the facts." A bankruptcy court judge allowed Enron to drop hundreds of Energy Service contracts, but the company has taken extraordinary measures to keep many of the remaining deals alive, an indication many of the unit's contracts remain profitable. -By Jason Leopold, Dow Jones Newswires; 323-658-3874; jason.leopold@dowjones.com