New Documents Suggest Enron’s Lay, Skilling, Washington Lobbyist Knew Abou

[Whoa_Nelly]

New Documents Suggest Enron’s Lay, Skilling, Washington Lobbyist Knew About Company’s Trading Schemes In CA

by Jason Leopold
www.dissidentvoice.org
June 7, 2004

Federal energy regulators have just released more than 400 pages of documents that suggest former Enron chairman Ken Lay and former chief executive Jeff Skilling were aware that Enron's west coast traders may have broken the law by using manipulative trading tactics in California to boost Enron’s profits during the height of that state's power crisis.

Moreover, one of Enron's most powerful Washington, D.C. lobbyists, who met with several members of the Bush administration in the spring of 2001 about Enron's opposition to price controls on electricity sales in California, was told by Tim Belden, the mastermind behind Enron's notorious trading scams, less than a year earlier that Belden and other traders working at the company's West Coast trading desk in Portland, Oregon spent the better part of 2000 and 2001 breaking the rules governing California's power market “when opportunities presented themselves to make money.”

“There's really two -- two things that happened -- two areas... in terms of things blowing up,” Belden told Richard Shapiro, Enron's vice president of regulatory affairs and one of the company's lobbyists, in August 2000. “One is our day-ahead scheduling practices and then the other is our real-time operations. Um, we've been doing and have been doing for two years a lot of activity in, you know, there's black, there's white and there's gray. Um, we have been endeavoring into the gray area when opportunities present themselves to make money. We have now moved out of the gray area into the clearly what's legal area... not even legal, but what's, um, there's like the letter of the law, the letter of the rules and the spirit of the rules. Um, we've been exploiting the letter of the rules -- or literally interpreted -- interpreting the rules, um, in California when we can make money...”

<snip>
That same day, May 17, 2001, Cheney and Bush unveiled the details of the National Energy Policy, in which Cheney adopted seven of Ken Lay's suggestions, according to published reports. Had the intimate details of Enron’s trading schemes been known to California officials, it most certainly would have derailed Bush’s energy policy, which called for keeping many of deregulation’s key components in place, and forcing key players, like Cheney, to return to the drawing board to draft a new policy.

more...
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/June04/Leopold0607.htm

[boobooday]

1. Will there ever be justice for the people

When it comes to these corporate looters?



http://www.wgoeshome.com

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. Could be Lay's comeuppance is in the works

(from the article)
On May 17, 2001, Enron Chairman Ken Lay called a secret meeting at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, in an effort to get some of the state’s rich and famous to lobby the California Legislature about getting “deregulation right this time.” Lay apparently paid close attention to Enron's trading profits. A few months earlier, Sue Mara, an Enron governmental affairs employee phoned Bob Badeer, an Enron trader, with a question from Ken Lay. Following public comments by Governor Gray Davis about the state of California's energy crisis, Mara said Lay personally wanted to know if Davis's comments had affected the price of power in the forward market. That Lay would be interested in such minute details contradicts the former chairman's public statements that he had no idea about the shenanigans taking place inside of Enron.

California’s current Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who unseated Davis in a contentious recall election last year, attended the meeting at the Peninsula Hotel with Lay as did former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and junk-bond king Michael Milken and other luminaries. Lay handed the attendees a seven-page document that contained so-called solutions to the state’s electricity crisis.

[alfredo]

6. Bush will pardon them preemptively.

You know he will.

[buycitgo]

19. I FERVENTLY hope he does

remember back to 92......poppy had climbed back to within a POINT of Clinton, according to CNN (I remember this vividly, and got physically ill)

THEN......Walsh announced the indictments of Cappy, etal, and the bottom fell out of the campaign

there's no way he'd be that stupid, unless it comes down to a matter of keeping his OWN as out of jail.....letting the election fall by the wayside, as a matter of secondary importance to becoming a pork cushion in some nasty graybar

please do it, though, georgie, cause there are enough OTHER things you've let your handlers pull in your name to keep you in jail for a long long time

a pardon will insure your defeat, though, and I'll take that

for now

[alfredo]

23. he may only have two bad choices.

Of course if he "won" he could pardon them and ensure those scandals will be buried.

[Just Me]

9. I often ask myself that same question, boobooday.

The slight of justice with regard to corporate corruption is phenomenal,...and just plain disgusting.

[reprobate]

11. I agree, JM. But we both know that nothing will change.

The american brand of corporatism is here to stay if left up to the gov't, whether it be dem or repug. There is far too much money from the corporatists in the hands of senators and congresscritters. In my view there are only two things that can change our current dive towards fascism.

The one that would change things peacefully is to make the giving or recieving of money by anyone to any gov't official a class three felony with mandatory prison time. Finance all elections federally. But we all know this won't happen due to the influence of the corporations. They will not give up power voluntarilly.

The other possibility, and I see this as more and more probable, is for the people to follow Gore Vidal's prediction and take to the streets in a massive, national uprising. If the people finally come to the realization that the american dream is now a nightmare there may just be the spark that sets off revolutions. And I believe that we are moving in that direction.

[havocmom]

2. Where does it leave GOP fund raiser Marc Rasicot?

After the mess he left in his wake in Montana cuz he sold us out to the energy companies to assure his nice job as an energy lobbyist, I wanna see him go down with the rest of them.

[susu369]

14. Ed Gillespie can join Racicot as well in a downfall

Gillespie = another Enron lobbyist in days past.

Jason Leopold has my full admiration as a writer regarding the energy crisis/scandals. Looking forward to his book coming out in December; however, I predict he will have to have a sequel.

[Justice]

4. When Did Regulators Get Documents?

How long have they been sitting on them?

[Whoa_Nelly]

5. An excellent question!

:kick:

[On the Road]

7. Bingo!

After the tapes about sticking it to Grandma, all that remains is showing Lay had knowledge of it. 400 pages of evidence sounds pretty extensive. And I sure hope they play excerpts on the daily news, even if they have to bleep a couple of words.

[chelsea0011]

8. Fer Christ sakes. Ed Bradley and 60 Minutes knew months ahead

when the covered the upstart Lay and Enron in a piece a year before Enron's collapse. I turned on the news shows Monday morning thinking it would be the top story of the day only to find out they were still blaming California, the Governor, deregulation, and everything but the crooks who should have been blames. When will this story become the media darling? Never?

[FreakinDJ]

12. Pete Wilson deserves A LOT of BLAME for this Too

He was told of the possible manipulation and still rammed it through with his fast track program

Now Pete Wilson is hiding behind Arnold still calling the shots in letting these crooks off the hook. In fact Pete Wilson and Ken Lay met with Arnold during his election champaign

[tlcandie]

10. Here's the code/key to EXACTLY how this regime and all their

evil cohorts work day in and day out.... snipped from the original linked article..

Um, we've been doing and have been doing for two years a lot of activity in, you know, there's black, there's white and there's gray. Um, we have been endeavoring into the gray area when opportunities present themselves to make money. We have now moved out of the gray area into the clearly what's legal area... not even legal, but what's, um, there's like the letter of the law, the letter of the rules and the spirit of the rules. Um, we've been exploiting the letter of the rules -- or literally interpreted -- interpreting the rules...

And there you have it folks! This relates to the economy, the WoT, the stolen election, the upcoming election, etc., etc.

[FreakinDJ]

13. Every time a Republican gets in to office they loot America

Reagen = S&l failures over 20 billion cost still being paid off now

Bush #2 = Western Energy Crisis, Haliburton Contracts, and Medicare Perscription plan.

When are the Tax paying citizens of this country going to wake up

[salin]

15. He has done great reporting on this

even after there being blackballed by the NYT at the WH request (per the Thomas White stories.)

[Guaranteed]

16. String....the...fuckers....

UP.

[napi21]

17. We already know Kerry will win Ca. Will all this make any diff..

in the other states? I hate what Enron did because, as an accountant, I detest the loopholes that made it possible for these AH's to even get away with crap that was legal! But what aobut the rest of the "red" states? Will they even care, or is this just another thing that ONLY happens in Ca.?

[Bozita]

18. Pre-Repug Convention 2000, Bush flew everywhere gratis on an Enron plane

and some folks out there have photos/videos of Bush and the Enron logo on the fuselage/tail in the same frame.

[dusty64]

20. Not much coverage

of this at all. Hmmm, I'm surprised. :eyes:

[NewYorkerfromMass]

21. we can try (kick)

[0007]

22. Also inside information from Electrical Manufactures and Power Companies

that have screwed the general public silly long before Enron.

Tim Belden, is a perfect example.

I am outraged!