Remember Enron? Remember the phoney "California energy
crisis"? Remember that mysterious choking-on-a-pretzel
incident? Remember Kenny Boy Lay? That huge POLITICAL SCANDAL (billed as "bigger than the Teapot Dome") was all about to hit HARD prior to the catastrophic DISTRACTION of 9/11. Of course, after 9/11, as you know, the incredible shrinking _resident declared, on numerous occasions, "Lucky me, I hit the Trifecta!" Well, the corpse of the Enron scandal may yet float to the surface of this lake of LIES...
Jonathan Peterson, Los Angeles Times: Enron Corp. employees spoke of "stealing" up to $2 million a day from California during the 2000-01 energy crisis and suggested that their market-gaming ploys would be presented to top management, possibly including Jeffrey K. Skilling and Kenneth L. Lay, according to documents released Monday...
In a Sept. 14, 2000, conversation, an employee named
"Sue" from Enron's governmental affairs operation
checks in with a trader named "Bob" for information
that could be used in an in-house presentation to
corporate executives. "This is the time of year when
government affairs has to prove how valuable it is to
Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling," Sue said, according to the
transcript.
Free Martha Stewart, Prosecute the Real Corporate
Criminals, Show Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush
(again!)
http://truthout.org/docs_04/051904F.shtml
Enron Tapes Hint Chiefs Knew About Power Ploys
By Jonathan Peterson
Los Angeles Times
Tuesday 18 May 2004
Washington - Enron Corp. employees spoke of
"stealing" up to $2 million a day from California
during the 2000-01 energy crisis and suggested that
their market-gaming ploys would be presented to top
management, possibly including Jeffrey K. Skilling and
Kenneth L. Lay, according to documents released
Monday.
The evidence of apparent scheming - in one
recorded conversation, traders brag about taking money
from "Grandma Millie" in California - is in a filing
by a utility in Snohomish County, Wash. The municipal
power unit north of Seattle wants refunds for alleged
overcharges made by Enron during the electricity
market meltdown.
The utility obtained transcripts of routinely
recorded trader discussions from the Justice
Department, which seized them in its Enron
investigation.
While it has long been established that Enron
engaged in market-gaming tactics - two top traders
have pleaded guilty to fraud-related charges for
manipulating California's energy market and a third
awaits trial - the 450 pages of recorded conversations
provide another vivid look into the organization's
exploitive subculture.
They also suggest that knowledge of alleged
wrongdoing may have reached the level of Skilling,
Enron's former chief executive, and Lay, the former
chairman.
In a Sept. 14, 2000, conversation, an employee
named "Sue" from Enron's governmental affairs
operation checks in with a trader named "Bob" for
information that could be used in an in-house
presentation to corporate executives.
"This is the time of year when government affairs
has to prove how valuable it is to Ken Lay and Jeff
Skilling," Sue said, according to the transcript.
The Snohomish utility identified Sue as Susan J.
Mara, Enron's California director of regulatory
affairs until December 2001, when she and thousands of
others lost their jobs as the result of Enron's
financial collapse.
In talking with Bob, whose identity couldn't
immediately be learned, Mara touts Enron's success in
delaying a lowering of energy price caps by state
officials.
Then, still seeking helpful material for the
planned executive presentation, she asks: "Do you know
when you started overscheduling load and making
buckets of money on that?"
Overscheduling load - a tactic that Enron traders
famously dubbed "Fat Boy" - involved purposely
overstating how much electricity would be needed in
the future, creating the appearance of power shortages
and leading to inflated prices.
Mara, who is now an energy consultant, said Monday
that the recorded conversation came about as she
gathered information for a budget presentation to be
made to executives at corporate headquarters in
Houston. "We had to show what our accomplishments were
for the year," she said.
Mara said she didn't recall what the final
presentation contained or which executives heard it.
The presentation was not prepared expressly for
Skilling and Lay, she said, even though her statement
in the recorded conversation implied that they would
hear it.
The trading tactics discussed on the recording
weren't considered illegal or manipulative by Enron,
Mara added.
Asked Monday about the transcripts, Enron
spokeswoman Karen Denne declined to comment, save to
say: "We have been and we're continuing to cooperate
with all investigations."
Skilling's lawyer, Bruce Hiler, declined to
comment. Earl J. Silbert, an attorney for Lay, could
not immediately be reached.
Federal prosecutors in February brought a range of
fraud charges against Skilling for his actions when he
was at the helm at Enron, but none was related to
trading in the California market. Lay has not been
charged.
In a different conversation in the transcripts,
Enron's West Coast trading chief, Timothy N. Belden,
discusses the profitability of the company's
strategies in California, particularly those executed
by a trading desk led by Jeffrey S. Richter:
"Well he makes - between one and two [million] a
day, which never shows up on any curve shift?. He
steals money from California to the tune of about a
million? "
At this point the other speaker interrupts, asking
Belden to rephrase what he just said.
"OK," Belden says. "He, um, he arbitrages the
California market to the tune of a million bucks or
two a day."
Asked about the transcript Monday, Belden's
lawyer, Chris Arguedas, said that it was not possible
to draw conclusions about the meaning of Belden's
remarks without a better sense of the whole
conversation. "You can't understand words spoken
unless you see the context in which they are spoken,"
she said.
In October 2002, Belden pleaded guilty to a
federal conspiracy charge and has been cooperating
with the government. Richter pleaded guilty to similar
charges the following February.
A spokesman for California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer
said the state was continuing to investigate Enron.
"The comments made in these transcripts, if they're
accurate, contain the kind of information that could
bolster" a case against Enron, said spokesman Tom
Dresslar.
Eric Christensen, a lawyer for the Snohomish
utility, said the transcripts strongly suggest top
Enron executives knew of the trading ploys used in
California.
"It was common knowledge at least in the
government relations unit, and they reported to upper
management in Houston," he said.
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