Ignorant Enron question

[cheezus]

Where did the money go? Could it be recovered?

[WilliamPitt]

1. Laundered in overseas accounts

The same accounts used by al Qaeda to launder terror payoffs. The same accounts Clinton tried to close in 1996. The same accounts Senator Phil Gramm, who was chairman of the Banking Committee, refused to let close. He called Clinton's attempt to do so 'totalitarian.' It turns out that Enron was using those accounts, and Gramm was protecting his rich Texas constituents at that company.

The money is gone. Gailbreath once said that money lost in the market goes to the same place your lap goes when you stand up. That's pretty much the deal here.

[JayS]

2. That is not an ignorant question at all. I don't know if I could...

...explain it to anyone though but there is a poster or two here that I am sure can explain it quite well. Needless to say, it involves a lot of complicated financial, accounting, and legal stuff.

And not much of the money can ever be recovered. A sizeable amount of it never existed.

[Bandit]

3. Into GOP Coffers

:shrug:

[AP]

4. Well, in the state of florida, there's no limit to the number of houses

you can own and protect from bankruptcy proceedings. So, the executives who extracted share value by selling all their shares all bought several houses in FL. So, even if they are sued and lose, they can declare bankruptcy and keept their homes and never have to pay any money.

[Justitia]

5. Not an ignorant question at all

I'm a corporate accountant by trade, my husband is a certified internal auditor, CPA, certified fraud examiner and certified bank examiner (who has audited lots of shady oil & gas deals) and it is still quite sticky for us to navigate!

Enron set up "ghost accounts" and basically made money where there was none (quasi legal). They took the real $$$ that they made from those transactions and filtered (laundered, although not technically exact) it through loads of "paper" subsidiary companies offshore. Then, they worked this back through their own personal holdings in the company. It is much more complicated than what I have described, and on a professional level I am amazed at the creativity and effort expended. In the end, they purposefully bankrupted their own company - but made themselves personally rich in the process.

Yes, it is gone for good, never to be seen again. While just a fraction of the mind-boggling numbers ended up as real cash (to clarify - this is the many millions made by the officers), the rest "evaporated" as ghost money in the market when it (Enron)collapsed.

[Justitia]

6. Interesting sidenote: Ed Gillespie (RNC) was an Enron lobbyist

before he became chairman of the Republican Nat'l Committee.

Whenever I see him on TV, I always automatically associate him with Enron.