Re: ENRON suspicions (was: Why Lou selling shares) -- MIDRANGE-L

I suspect this thread should be moved to some other list, with a revised
subject heading with ENRON in there ... I just not sure which one best fits
the bill ... USA911 perhaps?

I have been reading up on ENRON & posting some links of informative stories
that I have found to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TYR

C-Span is doing a 5 part series this week on various aspects
http://www.c-span.org/enron/index.asp

It is evident to me from the congressional hearings I have observed on C-Span
& also from this one in particular
http://www.c-span.org/enron/scomm_1218.asp

that the news media, as usual, are good at repeating what various people have
to say, but they are not good at understanding the subject well enough to
know which people are saying bogus stuff & which people are good sources of
good information

Houston is the location of ENRON head quarters & the Houston Chronical
http://www.chron.com has a special section just on this situation
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/01/enron/index.html

There were several reasons that I have seen with respect to the inability of
employees to move stock out of harms way:

1. Until the bad earnings report came out in October & the stock plummeted,
most employees thought that it was a good idea to keep your money in stock
that was going up in value & they believed the company statements about a
promising future.

2. The company was moving the 401k plan between plan administrators, during
which no transactions could be done, this takes a while, & the timing was
such that the move started before the bad earnings report came out & did not
finish until after the stock was worthless.

3. Employees made contributions to the plan from their earnings.
The company made matching contributions.
Company rules said that workers could not trade in the portion that was the
matching contributions until they turned age 50.
Top Managers were exempted from this rule.

4. There have been lots of allegations & lots of investigations.
   So far no one has a smoking gun that has survived cross-examination.

> From: javadisciple@earthlink.net (Chris Rehm)
>
>  Ken,
>  My point would be that you have been convinced of a crime by media
>  reports. It seems, from your post, that you already "know" they are
>  guilty and it is just a matter of whether or not they can be brought to
>  justice.
>
>  Wouldn't it be preferable to make that decision after all the facts are in?
>
>  I'm not saying that no crime or fraud was committed. I just haven't seen
>  it yet. Yes, the execs sold off stock, but then all execs in all
>  companies do that as a way of collecting their pay. Yes, employees
>  couldn't move their own stock options, but wasn't that because their
>  retirement plan guidelines forbid it? I don't know all the facts and I'd
>  prefer to see them before making a decision about whether or not crimes
>  were committed and who is guilty of those crimes with a little more to
>  go on than just the media hype of Enron's collapse.
>
>  ken shields wrote:
>
>  >    My guess is it was formulated by just a few clever
>  >people, I don't believe the entire rank and file knew what was going on.
>  >    Business community faith in 'audited financial statements' has been
>  >shaken.
>  >    With considerable judicious work, I believe they will uncover the
scope
>  >and names of those involved. As to whether or not they will be brought to
>  >justice is anybody's guess.
>  >    Makes for a good novel though....LOL
>  >Ken
>  >
>  --
>  Chris Rehm

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)