Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Citigroup Trial May Double Enron Creditors' Payout

Enron Corp. creditors could see their original payout more than quadruple to as much as $31 billion after a trial against Citigroup Inc.

Enron Creditors Recovery Corp., the entity winding up the defunct energy trader's affairs, distributed $13.3 billion, or 36 cents on the dollar, since a bankruptcy plan was approved in 2004. That includes most of $1.73 billion in out-of-court settlements with 10 of the 11 banks creditors accused of aiding the fraud that wiped out the company. They argue that Citigroup, the only lender that hasn't settled, should pay the rest of the claims, about $18 billion. The amount is more than six times the $2.8 billion reserve for Enron, WorldCom Inc. and initial public offering-related litigation that Citigroup disclosed in a Nov. 5 regulatory filing.

Citigroup Trial May Double Enron Creditors' Payout

Labels: enron, shareholder lawsuit

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Friday, January 18, 2008

Enron-driven reforms are unraveling

Enron was the beginning, and now it's the end. The company's collapse in late 2001 alerted the investing public to the magnitude of corporate fraud. We realized no haven was safe.
It meant that even the biggest of companies, the bluest of blue chip stocks could be vulnerable to the greed and hubris that lurked within its corporate offices.

After Enron, attitudes began to change. Congress enacted sweeping changes aimed at strengthening internal controls and making top executives more accountable. Enron's victims sued its bankers, recovering some $7 billion in settlements. Now, even as the process begins for distributing that money, the reforms designed to protect investors from another Enronlike scandal are unraveling.

After six years as the avatar of reform, the lessons of Enron are being rolled back, the consequences overlooked, history rewritten to offer an air of legitimacy to the vacuous deals born in Smith Street hubris.

Enron-driven reforms are unraveling

Labels: enron, fraud, supreme court decision

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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Enron shareholders learn outcome of suit

Enron Corp. investors who sued the company more than six years ago are learning this week they'll receive an average of $6.79 per share for the common stock they owned.

A court-approved mailing also notifies those who owned preferred stock they'll get $168.50 a share.

The lawsuit, known as the Newby case after shareholder Mark Newby, covers those who invested in Enron stock from Sept. 9, 1997, until Dec. 2, 2001, when the company declared bankruptcy.

The class comprises about 1.5 million buyers of stocks and bonds. They could have purchased common shares as high as $90 when Enron was soaring in August 2000 or as low as $1 right before the bankruptcy.

Enron shareholders learn outcome of suit

Labels: enron, fraud, shareholder lawsuit

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Sunday, April 29, 2007

The Enron attitude is still alive and kicking

The ghost of Enron still haunts Charles Niemeier.

More than five years after the energy trader's collapse, Niemeier worries that the lessons of its failure are being ignored.

"What scares me the most about Enron is not what they did wrong, but what they did right," he said. "They took the rules and used them to build a massive illusion."

Niemeier, a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, fears too many companies see Enron as an aberration rather than a symptom of a larger problem.

The Enron attitude is still alive and kicking

Labels: enron, pcaob

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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

SEC Charges Two for Enron's Brazil Deal

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two former Enron lawyers for their role in the sale of a Brazilian power project to one of the company's infamous partnerships.

The SEC alleged that Jordan H. Mintz, former vice president and general counsel of Enron's global finance group, and Rex R. Rogers, former vice president and associate general counsel, of making material misrepresentations and omitting material disclosures from the company's public filings. According to the commission, the misconduct concerned Enron's 1999 sale of an interest in a troubled power project in Cuiaba, Brazil, to a related party called LJM Cayman (a.k.a. LJM1), controlled by then-chief financial officer Andrew Fastow.

SEC Charges Two for Enron's Brazil Deal

Labels: criminal charges, enron, lawyers, partnership, sec

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