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Non-Tech : The Enron Scandal - Unmoderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (2604)	1/12/2003 2:33:35 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 3602

Unfinished Business Baltimore Sun Editorial Originally published January 10, 2003 REMEMBER ENRON? The reluctant national economic recovery, the growing federal budget deficit, the march toward war on Iraq, North Korea, Trent Lott - all have moved corporate malfeasance off center stage. Sure, criminal investigations continue with some of the more flagrant cases. Wall Street, Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission have taken aim at some malpractices. But there's considerable unfinished business - steps that would do a lot more than President Bush's latest tax-reduction plan to put investor confidence on firmer footing. Yesterday, many of those needed steps were spelled out by a commission of the Conference Board, a respected voice of blue-chip America. Part of the board's agenda is self-serving - avoiding over-regulation of corporate America - but it's nonetheless offering a blueprint of best practices to prevent more scandals from afflicting the economy. Among the board's recommendations: Corporate governance: Companies should strive to separate the roles of their too often dominant CEOs and their board chairmen, so there's more independent oversight of management. Corporate boards ought to comprise a majority of independent directors, those with no other connections to their firms. Board members ought to be regularly evaluated. Ethics: Companies should more actively foster ethical practices. Ethics codes aren't enough; Enron had one. Among the needed steps: more employee education, avenues for anonymous reporting of misconduct and for independent investigations of alleged wrongdoing, and making ethics a factor in senior management compensation. The long term: Companies and investors should focus on long-term - not quarterly - success, basing management and portfolio managers' compensation on that. More companies should take steps to encourage long-term investing, much as Coke recently did in ending its participation in the widespread practice of issuing quarterly "earnings guidance." Shareholders: Companies should provide for more shareholder participation in their governance. In turn, shareholders must act like owners, not stockholders, becoming more active in governance issues. This includes the managers of the 100 largest mutual funds, which own half of America's stock. Auditing: Corporate auditors should restrict their activities to auditing, rather than, say, advocating tax strategies. The auditing committees of corporate boards ought to be made up of sufficiently experienced members, whose oversight of management's financial reporting in turn should be subject to independent evaluation. Keep in mind that the panel that came up with these reforms - including Intel Chairman Andrew Grove, former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker, and John W. Snow, the current Treasury nominee - are hardly radicals. Let's hope they carry sufficient weight with their peers to save corporate America from its worst instincts. Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun sunspot.net

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (2604)	1/15/2003 12:38:42 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 3602

Why has our Army Secretary been able to keep his job...?? How Enron Helped Army Secretary Thomas White Build an $8 Million Fortress Enron and the Dodgy $8 million Army Fortress Scam By Jason Leopold Scoop Media Thursday, 2 January 2003, 4:54 pm Army Secretary Thomas White just put the finishing touches on a $4.6 million mansion in Naples, Florida, using funds some lawmakers have said White, the former vice chairman of Enron, obtained by selling his stock in the company using inside information. But Democrats in both houses said this week they have given up on their investigation of whether White knew about or was involved in Enron's manipulation of California's electricity market or if he sold his stock in the company using information that was not available to the public. "We just don't have the power to put Secretary White under anymore scrutiny," said a high-ranking aide to Congressman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who has been White's most vocal critic. "It seems that Enron has become old news. We haven't turned up any evidence that we can use against Secretary White from our investigations. It's over." The aide said Waxman sent a letter to White Aug. 6 questioning the Army Secretary about his sale of Enron stock but White never responded. Waxman never pursued White for a response. Senator Barbara Boxer, D-California, who called for White's resignation after he testified before a Senate committee investigating White's role at Enron, has turned her attention to other "pressing issues," an aide to Boxer said, refusing to elaborate. White is the highest ranking Bush administration appointee who worked at Enron. He held 405,710 shares of Enron stock, more than any other member of the Bush administration did. During the past three months, federal investigators probing the collapse of Enron Corporation have frozen the personal bank accounts of some of Enron's former executives, alleging the money--including bonuses and stock options-- belongs to the company's shareholders because it was obtained through a series of fraudulent transactions. Federal investigators are paying close attention to any former Enron executive spending large sums of cash. Even Kenneth Lay, Enron's former chairman, and Jeffrey Skilling, Enron's former president; are laying low and are being cautious not to draw too much attention to themselves by going on any sort of spending spree, according to people close to Skilling and Lay. But White, who sold his stock in Enron for more than $20 million is virtually immune to any of the criticism dogging other former executives of the one-time high-flying energy company. White built the $4 million mansion on a $4.6 million piece of property in Old Naples, according to a report in Sunday's Naples Daily News. White spent 10 years at Enron. He earned his entire fortune from his tenure at the company. White received a certificate of occupancy from the city of Naples on Dec. 12. A certificate of occupancy is needed from a city building official before the owner is allowed to move into the mansion, the paper reported. The two-story, 15,145-square-foot home at 2 Gulf Shore Blvd. S. attracted local attention earlier this year because White wanted to build a 6-foot, 9-inch wall, a 6-foot, 11-inch gate and gateposts that would be 10 feet, 1 inch tall, the Naples Daily News reported. The city's code allows walls to be 3 feet tall and gates and gateposts 6 feet tall. Some Naples City Council members refused to give White permission to violate the code because they felt the property would look like a fortress, according to the Naples Daily News report Architectural Land Design changed the numbers to a 3-foot, 11-inch wall with 18 inches of wrought iron on top, a 7-foot gate and gateposts that would be 7 feet, 6 inches tall, the Naples Daily News said. White sold some of the Enron stock in October 2001 after he spoke by telephone to Enron executives when the company started showing signs of unraveling. Some lawmakers have alleged that White received a tip about the company's accounting scandals and quickly sold his stock to avoid huge multimillion-dollar losses. But the allegations are still unproven. White's telephone calls to former Enron executives, however, should be enough to get federal investigators to probe possible insider trading violations since the government is reportedly using a similar scenario to investigate Lay for insider trading, according to the New York Times. But then again, if the government investigates White's sale of Enron stock who would lead our soldiers into a war with Iraq? Copyright (c) Scoop Media scoop.co.nz