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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LLCF who wrote (150116)	2/8/2002 2:38:35 AM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Let's not forget, Harrison and JPM were central to the scam going on at Enron. He personally tried his hardest to strong arm the rating agencies into not downgrading them to junk...even when it was clear to all the world that Enron was nothing but a Ponzi scheme: Message 16636273 To:Lucretius who wrote (133765) From: patron_anejo_por_favor Friday, Nov 9, 2001 4:42 PM View Replies (6) \| Respond to of 150118 This is a new low, even for these scumbags: quote.bloomberg.com. 11/09 16:16 Lehman's Fuld, JPM's Harrison Called Moody's on Enron (Update2) By Mark Lake New York, Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street executives, including Lehman Brothers Holding Inc. Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. CEO William Harrison, lobbied Moody's Corp. to keep Enron Corp.'s credit rating at investment grade, said people familiar with the situation. ``We've received calls from officials at leading capital markets firms who wanted to share their opinion with us,'' said Frances Laserson, vice president of corporate communications at Moody's. ``This is a very controversial subject and we've heard from a great number of people.'' Laserson declined to identify which Wall Street executives called the credit rating company, which rates more than $85 trillion in securities. Moody's today lowered Enron's long-term credit rating to ``Baa3,'' one level above junk. A below investment grade rating would likely have scuttled a proposed $22 billion acquisition of Enron by Dynegy Inc. Lehman, J.P. Morgan and Citigroup Inc.'s Salomon Smith Barney stood to lose out on about $28 million in fees if the proposed acquisition collapsed, based on average commissions for recent transactions greater than $5 billion, according to Dealogic. Lehman is advising Dynegy. J.P. Morgan is advising Enron, along with Salomon. J.P. Morgan and Salomon also provided Enron with $1 billion in credit lines last month to help pay down debt and meet day-to-day costs. Obstacle Removed Moody's decision to maintain Enron's rating above junk removed an obstacle to Dynegy's proposed acquisition. Houston- based Dynegy was concerned that a junk rating would force Enron to repay early $3.3 billion of bonds and make it more difficult for it to raise capital and trade. Hannah Burns, a spokeswoman for Lehman, declined to comment on behalf of Fuld. Harrison declined comment when reached last night at a hotel in Boca Raton, Florida, ``I can't comment on client relationships. It's getting late.'' Bankers typically lobby Moody's to get the highest rating for the companies they represent. In this case, the amount of calls and the seniority of the bankers was unusual, Laserson said. ``We're kind of like the Vatican. A lot of people say they've called the Vatican, but the Vatican will never confirm who's called the Vatican,'' she said. Dynegy began talking with Enron last week as the biggest energy trader faced difficulties in raising capital because of a Securities and Exchange Commission probe of its accounting irregularities and an 89 percent plunge in its share this year. If they were advising Dynergy, and the debt truly WAS junk, they just cost their client and it's share/bagholders billions. A more clear-cut breach of fiduciary duty is hard to imagine...but these are the same guys who had their sell-side analcysts raising price targets and reiterating buy recos on VERT while their investment banksters were selling shares with both hands!