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To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (1612)	7/8/2002 12:15:52 AM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

I can see the Euro at 1.1 before year end which isn't good for the markets.

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (1612)	7/8/2002 12:18:09 AM
From: Mannie	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 89467

$7.9 Billion "error"...oops, so sorry. Reliant owns up to $7.9bn accounts error By Edward Simpkins (Filed: 07/07/2002) Reliant Resources, the $2.5bn Houston-based energy trading and generating company with offices in London, admitted late on Friday that it has artificially inflated its revenues by more than $7.9bn over the past three years. The company filed restated accounts with the Securities and Exchange Commission in response to "certain investigations, litigation and governmental proceedings". The submission shows energy trades during 1999, 2000 and 2001 added $6.4bn to the company's income during those years. The deals are so called "round-trip" trades where the same amount of energy is bought and sold for the same price in order to increase trading volumes. As well as the round-trip trades the company added another $1.5bn to its income because of the way it accounted for four other energy contracts which Reliant describes as "swaps". It said these deals were legitimate and were expected to increase future cash flows. However, it has banned its staff from further round-trip trading. The filing said: "The personnel who effected these transactions apparently did so with the sole objective of increasing volumes." In May, the company claimed that it had not been involved in Enron-style dealing. "Reliant denies that the company engaged in trading practices comparable to the practices detailed in the Enron memos," the company told investigators. Earlier that month the company cancelled a $500m debt placing and admitted the round trip trades. The announcement wiped a further 25 per cent off its already battered share price which closed on Friday at $8.68, down from $37 last year. Its latest filing admits that the company is now involved in "numerous" lawsuits and regulatory proceedings relating to its trading activities, mainly regarding its same-day purchases and sales with the same counterparty for the same price and volume of energy. However, it is also being investigated for other transactions it inaccurately accounted for and its "activities in the California wholesale market". In June the SEC issued a formal order to the company saying it was investigating its financial reporting and internal controls. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also subpoenaed documents and requested information on Reliant's natural gas and power trading while the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has asked for co-operation into its inquiry into energy price manipulation in California. In May and June this year 10 class action lawsuits were filed on behalf of investors in Reliant Resources and its parent Reliant Energy and a further law suit was filed last week. As well as the company and its directors, the banks that underwrote its IPO last year are named as defendants as are their auditors. Last month Steve Letbetter, the chairman and chief executive of Reliant Resources, gave an upbeat statement to analysts. He said: "The most fundamental fact, the most important fact is that our underlying business is strong," he said. He added that he is shortly expecting SEC approval to spin the company out of Reliant Energy.

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (1612)	7/8/2002 1:33:08 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 89467

. MARTHA THRIVED ON BUDDY SYSTEM By TERRY KEENAN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PARTY FAVORS: The Martha Stewart saga gives a glimpse into how the Wall Street game was played among the well-connected. - Patrick McMullan July 7, 2002 -- ONE of the most compelling aspects of the Martha Stewart saga is how it keeps on giving. Giving, that is, almost daily examples of how the Wall Street game was really played by the well-connected in the days before the bubble became real trouble. We all knew that the game was rigged, but Martha's Web helps complete the picture. And this has nothing to do with trading on inside information. While we all know that investment tips spread around the New York social scene like air kisses, the real currency of the cognoscenti during the bull market was perfectly legal tender: shares in a hot IPO. While mere mortals rarely got a crack at a new issue, typically 10 to 15 percent of all IPO shares were earmarked for "friends and family." And in the halcyon days of the late 1990s, an IPO allocation was the closest thing to a winning lottery ticket you could get. The Martha saga reveals a glimpse into how this gravy train worked. Although we still don't know exactly why Martha decided to dump all her ImClone shares on that stopover in San Antonio, we do know this: She got her original 5,000 shares of ImClone at the time of its very popular IPO because of her friendship with ImClone CEO Sam Waksal. More recently, Martha also got to invest in Waksal's venture fund Scientia for a tenth of a penny per share. Both sales were perfectly legal, and potentially very lucrative. Call it the ultimate party favor. And Martha returned the favors in kind - doling out $10 million dollars worth of shares to her "friends and family" when Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public in late 1999. For Martha's savvy buddies who sold in the days after the IPO, it was a double-your-money proposition, with virtually no downside risk - for them. The risk was assumed by millions of shareholders out of the loop - those who bought hundreds of billions of dollars worth of IPO shares in the public market in recent years with misguided hopes of a similar moon shot. With the average IPO rising 70 percent in its first day of trading in the boom year of 1999, the SEC, the investment banks and the CEOs all knew that selective allocation of these IPOs was the ultimate "insider trade," but the practice continues to this day. Just another ingredient in a get-rich quick recipe that has left those not included in the loop with a bad taste about the stock market. TERRY KEENAN is senior business correspondent and anchor of Cashin' In, an investing program that appears on Fox News Channel on Saturday mornings at 11:30. Please send e-mail to terry.keenan@foxnews.com.