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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (334553)	12/28/2002 10:42:52 PM
From: J_F_Shepard	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Don't know....but if they simply pay bills and expenses from there, I'm not sure how they would be taxed??? Maybe someone else here knows the answer????

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (334553)	12/28/2002 11:01:45 PM
From: MSI	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Does the company then bring U.S. Dollars into the U.S. without paying the tax? There are ways to do that thru "transfer pricing" to artificially raise or lower profits to make them appear in the US or offshore, as needed, or in individuals' pockets. If you read Congressional hearings on Enron, those funds are used a variety of ways, to further other offshore deals and acquisitions, offshore compensation to executives, or laundered back to the US in the form of loans. There's one variety known as a "walk-away" loan, after 7 years you can dispose of the documentation and cancel the loan, without triggering tax consequences, if the borrower is willing to lie about it. In Enron's case, they used offshore money to falsely cook their balance sheet for stock profits, and in last-minute $740 million bonuses for execs just before BK. Did anyone offshore use this knowledge to play stock games like going long on the way up and short on the way down? Does the Pope wear a pointed hat? These are questions to ask of the 800 offshore accounts, which Bush and DOJ refuse to look into until they've been properly sanitized. thedailyenron.com California's Money and Enron's "Cookie Jar" Enron's collapse into bankruptcy last December left Californians scratching their heads. It just didn't make sense. After all, Enron had just spent the last two years pillaging and looting California's ratepayers' pocketbooks. How could the company now be broke? Where did all that money go? Now we know. California investigators have discovered that during the state's energy crisis of 2000/2001 Enron pocketed over $1.5 billion in secret profits. But, Enron quickly learned what every big drug dealer quickly learns - a ton of cash with no reasonable explanation can be a burden. At the time California ratepayers were already complaining to Washington that energy companies were up to no good. If all that cash landed on the company books then it would have been, well, politically inconvenient. At the time Enron's Ken Lay was telling Bush administration officials to ignore California's bellyaching, that the state was simply suffering from its own poorly executed energy deregulation. So, rather than report all the profits, thereby confirming that the company was indeed gouging, Enron stuffed the money into an off-the-books "cookie jar." The accounting trick provided several advantages. First, by dipping into the cash stash Enron was able to show Wall Street what appeared to be a respectable rate of growth. This, of course, was like so much that was Enron--an illusion. In reality the company was already terminally in debt - debts that were safely hidden in secret offshore partnerships. And, Enron's leadership in manipulating California's energy supplies and prices had created a fresh source of hard cash for one grand final looting of company coffers. Just prior to Enron's bankruptcy the company approved over $740 million in last minute "bonuses" to Enron executives. Finally Enron's books balanced, and Californians now know where their money went Citicorp used simpler secret loans in "circular transactions": chron.com The potential to influence politicians with offshore funds makes the 800 unidentified offshore accounts of Enron important, but unlikely to be disclosed. There could be other billions, not the tens of millions A. Fastow is copping a plea for. ("here's your choice, kid, keep a few mill and take the rap, or end up like Cliff Baxter" news.bbc.co.uk centrexnews.com