Enron probe will examine industry-wide impact Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [Enron, the largest corporate contributor to the Select campaign for President of the current White House occupier, has now provided the US with the largest corporate bankruptcy in the history of the nation, and thousands of employees (many of whom have just lost their jobs) may also see their life savings and pension funds wiped out as a result of plummeting stock values and the unregulated corporation's unorthodox accounting methods.--NY Transfer] source - Bill Koehnlein Financial Times - December 5, 2001 http://www.ft.com Enron probe will examine industry-wide impact by Gwen Robinson in Washington and Andrew Hill in New York US lawmakers signalled on Wednesday that investigations into the Enron case would go beyond the collapse of the energy trader and dig deep into the implications for companies, markets and the accountancy profession. Investigators from the House of Representatives energy and commerce committee - one of the most powerful congressional panels - will meet Enron officials on Thursday in Texas as part of their probe into the company, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday. Billy Tauzin, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the committee, said his investigators "intend to be very aggressive" and would begin hearings next month. "This is just the beginning," said an official involved with the hearings. "These issues go way beyond Enron to securities law and financial markets regulation - and the role of auditors." "Too many people were hurt by this," Mr Tauzin said, adding that he wanted to know how Enron manipulated accounting procedures and would examine the impact of the company's failure on energy markets. Although Mr Tauzin said he could not say right away whether Congress needed to take action, an official involved with the probe predicted that "at the very least" it would lead to tighter regulation of accountants and ensure more transparency in commodities trading. The "Big Five" accountancy firms including Andersen, Enron's auditor, issued a joint statement on Wednesday that responded to growing criticism over the the quality and objectivity of Andersen's audits and promised to react to the implications of the Enron collapse. The energy committee, which conducted a comprehensive investigation into last year's controversy over defective Firestone tyres on Ford Explorer vehicles, is promising an equally thorough inquiry into Enron. The committee's investigators met on Wednesday with the Financial Accounting Standards Board and senior executives of Andersen. Wednesday's talks with Enron in Texas will centre on the company's accounting procedures and its relationship with Andersen. The committee this week asked Enron and the SEC to hand over documents on the company's accounts and the SEC's investigation. Michael Oxley, the Republican chairman of the House financial services committee, said on Tuesday that two of its subcommittees would "move past the headlines and get the facts on Enron" in their joint hearings planned for next Wednesday. Meanwhile, Enron continues to hive off non-core operations. PwC, which is acting as the administrator for Enron Europe, said it intended to sell the group's European metals, commodity trading and credit derivatives business, having agreed the sale of Enron Direct, the UK-based gas and power supplier, on Tuesday. At the same time, the parent company is trying to salvage its stricken core north American trading business. UBS, the Swiss banking group and JP Morgan Chase have both registered an interest in forming a joint venture. The latest of at least two dozen lawsuits was filed on Wednesday against Enron executives and board members, together with a request for an order to freeze their assets. Bill Lerach, lead attorney for the new suit said: "Our investigation is revealing to us the fraud thus far disclosed was the tip of the iceberg." [Additional reporting by Elizabeth Wine and Sheila McNulty] **************************************************************************** "Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism." --Martin Luther King, Jr. **************************************************************************** The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory http://www.toplab.org **************************************************************************** ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytlab-12.06.01-05:04:20-9741