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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Rat dog micro-cap picks... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bucky Katt who wrote (7098)	2/20/2002 12:41:00 PM
From: xcr600	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 48461

Get a load of this site! enronownsthegop.com This is also pretty funny-- Lay, Skilling Took Part in 'The Sting An Elaborate 1998 Ruse on Analysts By JASON LEOPOLD DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Former Enron Corp. Chief Executive Kenneth Lay and former President Jeff Skilling were personally involved in stage-managing a fake trading room to impress analysts, an episode employees jokingly referred to as "The Sting." Former employees said secretaries and other staff who in 1998 once posed as busy energy traders in an unused trading room were part of a more elaborate charade. Mr. Skilling wanted the room to look like a Wall Street trading floor, said Mike Regala, a former vice president for Enron Energy Services. "He got the best equipment, tore down all these offices, set up a database to track deals," Mr. Regala said. "I got pulled into this meeting before the analysts came through and was told to rehearse a canned spiel for this presentation. Then they brought the secretaries into the room to act out these scenarios on how energy services did deals," Mr. Regala said. "Skilling would tell the analysts that this is how we structure a deal. Then they showed them all these accounts that we had in the pipeline. But that was absolute spin." Judy Leon, an attorney for Mr. Skilling, said, "We're not going to respond to every rumor or accusation that comes along" when asked about the incident. Mr. Lay's attorney declined to comment. Former employees said that the purpose was to convince analysts that Enron Energy Services -- still small in 1998 -- was a profitable operation. The unit had been 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 hatched deregulation. Analysts were eager to know that Enron's investments in the unit were paying off in new business. But the customers weren't showing up. Barry Steinhart, a former finance employee at Enron Energy Services, also recalled "The Sting" scene. "They probably spent $500,000 reconstructing that area," Mr. Steinhart said. He said staff put maps on the walls to indicate that more was happening than really was: "I was one of the people who recruited warm bodies in these seats. We painted phones black to make it look like a slick operation. We held a rehearsal with Skilling and Lay the day before, and Skilling said he wanted to play the Paul Newman character from the movie 'The Sting' when the analysts came through."