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Strategies & Market Trends : Wall Street Analysts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patsy Collins who wrote (119)	3/4/2002 9:10:44 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 167

Analyst: Fired Over Enron Sell Advice By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press Writer Monday March 4, 8:50 pm Eastern Time Analyst for Houston Office of UBS Says Was Fired for Telling Clients to Sell Enron Stock HOUSTON (AP) -- A financial adviser for the Houston office of UBS PaineWebber believes he was fired last summer because he told clients to sell their Enron Corp. stock. In a U-4 regulatory filing Aug. 31, 2001, to the National Association of Securities Dealers, former UBS PaineWebber adviser Chung Wu said he sent an e-mail to more than 10 of his clients Aug. 21 expressing concerns about Enron's financial future and advising them to sell their company stock. Wu's recommendation came a week after Jeffrey Skilling resigned as Enron's chief executive. At the time, Enron stock was in the $36 range, less than half of its peak earlier in the year. Enron ultimately declared bankruptcy Dec. 2 and a day later laid off 4,500 employees. It's stock had fallen to less than $1. "Enron management was not pleased and due to the employee stock option relationship UBS PaineWebber has with them, the pressure came from my corporate office to the branch level (Houston) to dismiss me," Wu wrote in the filing to the association, a securities industry self-regulatory organization. "I told the truth to my clients," he added. Wu, who had been with UBS PaineWebber for about two years, was fired the same day he sent the warning to his clients. He is now working in a similar capacity for the Houston office of A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc. Wu did not return a telephone call Monday from The Associated Press. A colleague at A.G. Edwards, Phil Gundy, described Wu as "in a no comment state of mind." David Walker, a spokesman for UBS PaineWebber, confirmed late Monday Wu was fired for sending the e-mails. "UBS PaineWebber terminated Mr. Wu for failing to follow firm policy and regulatory requirements that he obtain prior management approval before sending firm correspondence to clients," said Walker, who declined additional comment. Analysts at UBS PaineWebber continued to recommend Enron stock and they were not alone. Ten of 15 analysts who followed Enron were still rating it as a "buy" or "strong buy" as late as Nov. 8, two weeks after the Securities and Exchange Commission announced it had opened an inquiry into the Houston-based energy trading company's accounting. Enron's bankruptcy came after revelations of questionable partnerships that helped keep billions of dollars in debt off its books and the company's acknowledgment that it overstated profits for four years. Millions of investors large and small lost money in Enron's collapse, and thousands of current and former Enron employees lost the bulk of their retirement savings, much of which was invested in Enron stock. At a hearing last week by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, analysts from several firms told lawmakers they apparently were misled about Enron's financial situation.