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To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (5404)	8/30/2002 1:05:30 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Lay may face insider-trading charges msnbc.com By Jane Weaver MSNBC Aug. 28 — While federal prosecutors turn up in the heat in their investigations of fraud at bankrupt energy giant Enron, it’s far from certain charges will be brought against former Enron chief executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. However, it appears that the government is pursuing insider-trading charges against Lay. IS THIS THE calm before the next storm in the Enron case? Andrew Fastow, former chief financial officer, is said to be negotiating a plea agreement with federal prosecutors for his role in accepting kickbacks from fraudulent Enron partnerships. Fastow’s overtures to prosecutors come after last week’s dramatic developments when Michael Kopper, a former Enron managing director and considered Fastow’s right hand man in many of the schemes, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Kopper’s plea was quickly followed by U.S. federal prosecutors freezing about $23.5 million of Fastow’s assets that the government believed came from money laundering and other illegal activities. The highly unusual and aggressive move of freezing the assets of Fastow before issuing charges against him has surely prompted the 40 year-old former CFO to cooperate with federal prosecutors in the hopes of leniency. “Prosecutors are being extremely aggressive in their efforts to freeze and then take control of assets that are in the hands of parties that have not been charge with any criminal activity,” said Christopher Bebel, a Houston securities lawyer with Shepherd Smith & Bebel. “Everyone who is a potential defendant now has to worry about assets being seized with or without charges being brought against them.” By law, the government can only obtain a pre-trial asset freeze if it demonstrates to the court that it’s claim is likely to succeed. For prosecutors to seize Fastow’s assets demonstrates the strength of their evidence against him, legal experts say. Prosecutors are expected to pressure both Fastow and Kopper to implicate Lay or former CEO Jeffrey Skilling for their roles in the array of schemes that brought down the $66 billion energy giant. Neither Lay nor Skilling were mentioned during the court proceedings last week, but the government has already begun efforts to build an insider-trading case against Lay, according to people familiar with the situation. After nine months since Enron declared bankruptcy, federal investigators are coming under intense political pressure to “put some scalps on the wall,” according to legal experts. Lay’s attorney Michael Ramsay has met with members of the U.S. Justice Department’s Enron Task Force recently to answer questions about the former chairman’s compensation package and stock sales through the end of 2001. “It’s a complicated story, but we’re able to answer it,” said Ramsay. “There’s not a problem with insider-trading.” A spokesman for the Justice Department declined comment, calling the Enron proceedings an “open investigation.” Lay cashed out of more than $70 million before the failed energy conglomerate’s stock sunk less than $1 a share near the end of last year. For investigators to bring a charge of insider-trading against Lay, they would have to prove that Lay knew of the company’s financial problems and trading on it even as he maintained to investors and Wall Street that all was well. “There’s a high chance of losing white collar cases, it’s not like drug cases where there’s a 98 percent conviction rate,” said Bebel. “The government may have evidence they can prevail on but it’s never sure there’s enough.” Although accumulating enough evidence to formally charge Lay will be difficult for prosecutors, Ramsay, a well-respected Houston criminal lawyer, is already setting up the argument that Lay didn’t know about the corrupt activities of the Enron partnerships or have any connection with Kopper. The day Kopper pled guilty last week, Ramsay insisted that Lay didn’t know Kopper “by face” and that the kickbacks were kept secret. “The kickbacks were not told to the chairman of the board or the CEO for obvious reasons,” Ramsay told MSNBC.com. “If you’re stealing from the company you damn well don’t tell the boss.” Other legal experts say that for Lay and Skilling to claim ignorance strains credulity. “For that amount of money to not be watched by a chairman is a little hard to believe,” said Thomas Ajamie, a Houston expert in securities fraud. Kopper, who pled guilty to last Wednesday and faces a maximum of 15 years in prison, won’t be sentenced until at least next April in order to get as much evidence and as many documents as possible from him in order to build a case against other Enron executives, particularly Lay and Skilling. “The longer they delay the sentencing, the more they maintain their advantage over him,” said Lawrence Mitchell, law professor at George Washington University. “They’re not going to recommend a lighter sentence unless he performs at a level they want.”

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (5404)	8/30/2002 2:15:40 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Sharpen Your Pencil for a Test By ARIANNA HUFFINGTON syndicated columnist The Los Angeles Times August 29, 2002 1. Which is correct? A) George W. Bush has been arrested four times. B) George W. Bush is the first president with an MBA. Answer: B (Bush has been arrested only three times. Once for drunk driving in 1976 and twice while a student at Yale, once for ripping down the goal posts after a Princeton-Yale game and once for stealing a Christmas wreath from a hotel.) 2. Which jobs did Bernie Ebbers have before becoming CEO of WorldCom? A) Gym teacher, milkman and bar bouncer. B) Bookkeeper, shoe-shine stand operator, paper-cutter. Answer: A (Bookkeeper, shoe-shine stand operator and paper-cutter were all jobs held by Al Capone.) 3. True or False: In the mid-1990s, indicted former Adelphia CEO John Rigas put his home phone number on Adelphia's cable bills. Answer: True (It is not true, however, that customers could check a box on their bills if they wanted to donate $1 to the "John Rigas Bail Fund.") 4. Which of the following is a job previously held by Martha Stewart? A) Cancer-drug developer. B) Stockbroker. C) Bail bondsman. Answer: B (Bail bondsman is probably the most recent addition to her Palm Pilot. As for cancer-drug developer, I'm sure she wishes she'd never met one.) 5. Which of the following is true of former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski? A) In 2002, he was arrested and charged with evading millions of dollars in tax on art purchases he made. B) In 2002, he was named Florida Atlantic University's Business Leader of the Year. Answer: Both true. (And, in a speech to the graduating class at New Hampshire's St. Anselm College, also in 2002, he said: "You will be confronted with questions every day that test your morals. Think carefully, and for your sake, do the right thing, not the easy thing.") 6. Which of the following are actual suggestions made by then-WorldCom CEO Ebbers to save money at the company's headquarters? A) Raise the thermostats in summer. B) Let office plants die to save on water. C) Count coffee bags to make sure they aren't stolen. D) Switch to AT&T for long-distance service. Answer: A, B and C (It is not true that Ebbers asked employees trying to stay warm on cold days to snuggle by the space heaters.) 7. Why did Adelphia's Rigas refuse to show porn movies on his cable systems? A) It offended his sense of morality. B) Securing broadcast rights was too convoluted. C) He was reserving the channel space for family programming. Answer: A (If we are to believe his accusers, stealing $3.1 billion from Adelphia shareholders apparently didn't weigh on his conscience one bit, though.) 8. True or False: According to USA Today, 82% of 401 high-ranking corporate executives admit to being less than honest on the golf course. Answer: True. (And the other 18% were probably lying to the person taking the poll.) 9. What percentage of the Fortune 1,000 are managed by female CEOs? A) 5% B) 9% C) 1% Answer: C (There are only 11 women CEOs. And none of them have been indicted in the recent spate of accounting scandals, not even Martha--yet.) 10. Which of the following homes is owned by indicted former Tyco CEO Kozlowski? A) A $13.5-million, 15,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style waterfront estate with boat dock, elevator, pool, cabana, tennis court and fountain. B) An $18-million, 13-room 5th Avenue apartment featuring artworks by Monet and Renoir and a $6,000 gold shower curtain. C) A $5-million coastal Nantucket mansion with a three-bedroom guest house, in-home chef and boat dock. D) An $8.5-million, 7,800-square-foot Colorado estate on nearly three acres with eight bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. Answer: All of the above. (Plus, Kozlowski owns four others. His eight houses are valued at about $54 million. Although, if the Manhattan district attorney gets his way, Kozlowski's next home will be 8-by-10 with a toilet, bed and sink all in the same room.) latimes.com

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (5404)	8/30/2002 2:24:54 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

United States turns its back on global environmental degradation By NORBERT WALTER ECONOMIST Friday, August 30, 2002 FRANKFURT, Germany -- At present, there is much talk about the unparalleled strength of the United States on the world stage. Yet at this very moment the most powerful country in the world stands to forfeit much political capital, moral authority and international good will by dragging its feet on the next great global issue: the environment. Before long, the administration's apparent unwillingness to take a leadership role -- or, at the very least, to stop acting as a brake -- in fighting global environmental degradation will threaten the very basis of the American supremacy that many now seem to assume will last forever. U.S. authority is already in some danger as a result of America's relative absence from the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg -- "relative," that is, to its share of both the world economy and global pollution. The absence of President Bush from Johannesburg symbolizes this decline in authority. In recent weeks, newspapers around the world have been dominated by environmental headlines: In central Europe, flooding killed dozens, displaced tens of thousands and caused billions of dollars in damage. In South Asia, the United Nations reports a brown cloud of pollution that is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths a year from respiratory disease. The pollution (80 percent man-made) also cuts sunlight penetration, thus reducing rainfall, affecting agriculture and otherwise altering the climate. Many other examples of environmental degradation, often related to the warming of the atmosphere, could be cited. What they all have in common is that they severely affect countries around the world and are fast becoming a chief concern for people everywhere. Nobody is suggesting that these disasters are directly linked to anything the United States is doing. But when a country that emits 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases acts as an uninterested, sometimes hostile bystander in the environmental debate, it looks like unbearable arrogance to many people abroad. The administration seems to believe it is merely an observer -- that environmental issues are not its issues. But not doing anything amounts to ignoring a key source of world tension, and no superpower that wants to preserve its status can go on dismissing such a pivotal dimension of political and economic -- if not existential -- conflict. In my view, there is a clear-cut price to be paid for ignoring the views of just about every other country in the world today. The United States is jettisoning its hard-won moral and intellectual authority and perhaps the strategic advantages that come with being a good steward of the international political order. The United States may no longer be viewed as a leader or reliable partner in policymaking: necessary, perhaps inevitable, but not desirable, as it has been for decades. All of this because America's current leaders are not willing to acknowledge the very real concerns of many people about global environmental issues. No one could expect the United States to provide any quick fixes, but one would like to see America make a credible and sustained effort, along with other countries, to address global environmental problems. This should happen on two fronts. The first is at home in the United States, through more environmentally friendly policies -- for example, greater fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks and better insulation for buildings. The second is international, through a more cooperative approach to multilateral attempts at safeguarding the environment. Simply rejecting international treaties (like the Kyoto Protocol), then failing to offer a better proposal cannot be an acceptable option for American policymakers. Much of the world has come together to help the United States in the fight against terrorism, out of the realization that a common threat can only be beaten through a cooperative effort. It is high time for the United States, metaphorically speaking, to get out of its oversized, gas-guzzling SUV -- and join the rest of the world in doing more to combat global warming and protecting the planet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Norbert Walter is chief economist at Deutsche Bank Group. Copyright 2002 The New York Times seattlepi.nwsource.com

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (5404)	8/30/2002 4:52:45 AM
From: jjkirk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Dr. Statrat, I been pondering the correlation of $USD stockcharts.com[l,a]wacaynay[de][pb40!b10!f]&pref=G and $Gold, which, if thesis holds, perambulates around minus 1. stockcharts.com[l,a]wacaynay[de][pb40!b10!f]&pref=G Not being a StockCharts member, all I can do is print the two charts and hold them up to the light. Flip one over and, with the major exception of Jan-May 2001 when gold should have ramped up, the thesis holds. PPT was probably working overtime with the 2001 spring selloff... UMO Student, jj