Coverage of the fall of the energy-trading giant and the investigation into one of the largest bankruptcies in American business history.
Text of Indictment
http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/enron/usvlay70704ind.pdf Full story...
Former top Enron official in plea-bargain discussions
Prosecutors and attorneys for Enron Corp.'s former chief accounting officer, Richard Causey, are in negotiations on a plea bargain on the eve of trial for founder Kenneth L. Lay and former CEO Jeffrey K. Skilling, according to people familiar with the discussions. Full story...
Lay blasts U.S. over Enron
About a month before he faces two trials on fraud and conspiracy charges, Enron Corp. founder Kenneth L. Lay reiterated his insistence that he is innocent of any wrongdoing related to his company's scandalous collapse four years ago. Full story...
Enron to pay $1.52 billion, settle claims in 3 states
Enron Corp. agreed yesterday to a $1.52 billion settlement of accusations that it gouged Californians during the 2000-2001 energy crisis, but the state and utility customers probably will receive just a small fraction of the money. Full story...
Citigroup agrees to settle fraud suit
NEW YORK - In the first significant shareholder settlement since Enron Corp. collapsed more than three years ago, Citigroup Inc. has agreed to pay $2 billion to investors who accused the bank of aiding Enron in its huge accounting scandal by selling the defunct energy giant's stocks and bonds. Full story...
Ex-Andersen employees feel vindicated
CHICAGO - Jim Cunha's phone started ringing long before he left for work yesterday, as his former colleagues at the Andersen accounting firm called him to give him the good news. Full story...
Court reverses conviction of Enron auditor
The Supreme Court threw out the government's high-profile conviction against Arthur Andersen yesterday, saying in a unanimous and swift decision that jurors relied on flawed instructions in 2002 when they found that the accounting giant had obstructed justice by destroying reams of Enron-related files. Full story...
Lay seeks separate juries for his two trials
HOUSTON - Enron Corp. founder Kenneth L. Lay wants different juries for his two trials next year. Full story...
3rd Enron trader guilty of price manipulation
SAN FRANCISCO -- A former Enron Corp. trading executive pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of manipulating energy markets during California's power crisis. Full story...
Ex-Enron chairman pleads innocent
WASHINGTON - Former Enron Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kenneth L. Lay started yesterday with his hands cuffed behind his back. But hours later, he came out swinging. Full story...
Ex-chief Lay indicted in fall of Enron
The federal government's 2 1/2 -year investigation into the collapse of Enron Corp. reached the top of the shattered energy company's boardroom yesterday, as former Chairman and CEO Kenneth L. Lay was indicted on criminal charges related to the company's spectacular and unprecedented implosion. Full story...
Enron gouged customers of $1.1 billion, records show
SEATTLE - Enron Corp. manipulated the energy market practically every day during the 2000-2001 power crunch and gouged Western customers for at least $1.1 billion, according to audiotapes and documents released yesterday. Full story...
Lea Fastow withdraws Enron plea deal
The wife of former Enron Corp. finance chief Andrew Fastow withdrew a guilty plea to a tax crime today after a federal judge rejected a sentencing deal that would have given her just five months in prison and five months home confinement. Full story...
Deadline passes on Enron plea deal
A judge moved ahead with trial plans for the wife of former Enron finance chief Andrew Fastow after a Friday deadline for her to accept his conditions on a plea deal passed with no word from her attorneys. Full story...
Key Enron trader pleads guilty
A former top energy trader, considered the mastermind of Enron Corp.'s scheme to drive up California's energy prices, pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal conspiracy charge. Full story...
The Enron collapse: A year later
A year after Enron Corp.'s facade as a thriving global energy behemoth began to crumble publicly, only remnants remain of the heady days in the 50-story headquarters where the rich and powerful once ruled. Full story...
Former employees moving ahead
Matt Mitchell's credit card emblazoned with Enron's tilted-E logo still raises eyebrows from merchants, but he doesn't care. Full story...
A softer approach in Wall St. probes
In this season of white-collar scandal, the government has pursued corporate rogues with an unalloyed zeal, subjecting alleged wrongdoers to humiliating "perp walks" and rushing out criminal charges that could put them in prison. Full story...
Former Enron CFO charged
Andrew S. Fastow, the Enron Corp. executive who masterminded the financial schemes that brought down the company, was charged Wednesday with inflating the energy giants profits and siphoning off millions for himself, his family and friends. Full story...
Enron's Fastow to face charges
Federal prosecutors plan to bring criminal charges as early as Wednesday against Andrew S. Fastow, Enron Corp.'s former chief financial officer, a law-enforcement source said Tuesday. Full story...
Did Enron trading ploys cross line?
Enron Corp. traders were skilled at making money by exploiting weaknesses in California's energy markets. But did they cross the line and do anything illegal? Full story...
Enron creditors can sue Andersen
A Federal bankruptcy court judge on Thursday granted creditors of Enron Corp. the right to try to recover $10 million paid to former auditor Arthur Andersen LLP days before the energy company's collapse. Full story...
Probe tightens around former CFO
Enron Corp.'s former chief financial officer, Andrew S. Fastow, was implicated by an associate Wednesday in a series of criminal schemes to profit from Enron's off-the-books partnerships. Full story...
Prosecutors set to focus on Enron's former CFO
WASHINGTON -- Winning the guilty plea of an important former Enron Corp. insider, the Justice Department yesterday set its sights on the biggest target yet in the fraud investigation: Enron's former chief financial officer. Full story...
Fastow has Jekyll and Hyde image, friends say
The last time Andrew S. Fastow got in a public brawl about money, it was with a cab driver and concerned a 70-cent tip. The cabbie got so upset he punched Fastow in the face. Full story...
7 banks found to help Enron disguise debt
WASHINGTON - Seven major investment banks gave Enron Corp. multimillion-dollar loans that helped the now-bankrupt company disguise its financial condition, and in some cases, they knew that Enron was using deceptive accounting for the loans, a Senate investigator testified yesterday. Full story...
Army secretary denies role in Enron problems
WASHINGTON - Army Secretary Thomas White said yesterday that he is "appalled and angered" by the scandals that drove Enron Corp. into bankruptcy but denied any role in or knowledge of wrongdoing while he was an Enron executive. Full story...
Senate adds penalties to fraud bill
WASHINGTON - A unified Senate approved harsh new penalties yesterday for corporate fraud and document shredding, adding enforcement teeth to President Bush's plan to curb a growing wave of accounting scandals. Full story...
Bush urges tougher laws to fight fraud
NEW YORK -- President Bush, launching a new effort to combat corporate corruption, Tuesday demanded longer prison sentences for business executives who commit fraud and announced the creation of a federal task force to help pursue and prosecute such criminals. Full story...
Analysis
Reaction to Bush's calls for stiffer laws mixed
President Bush's corporate reform initiatives will do little to restore confidence in America's battered business culture, whether by shoring up investor trust or discouraging genuinely fraudulent behavior in the executive suite, according to business experts and government regulators. Full story...
Text of Bush's Wall Street speech
A text of President Bush's speech today on corporate scandals, as transcribed by eMediaMillWorks Inc.: Full story...
Laid-off Enron employees to get additional severance
NEW YORK - Employees laid off by Enron Corp. will receive an additional $29 million in severance, thanks to a federal bankruptcy judge's preliminary ruling that effectively doubles the amount paid to 4,200 former workers. Full story...
Andersen employee recounts shredding
HOUSTON - An Arthur Andersen LLP accountant testified yesterday that her boss stressed he wasn't telling employees to "shred a bunch of documents" when he reminded them of the firm's records retention policy during a hastily called meeting last fall. Full story...
Andersen loses last big client
CHICAGO - Fast-shrinking Arthur Andersen LLP suffered two more setbacks yesterday with announcements that 25 newly departed partners and 250 other professionals have formed a consulting group and that the last of Andersen's 15 biggest public audit clients has departed. Full story...
Auditor Duncan saved some records on Enron
HOUSTON - A former Arthur Andersen partner who illegally shredded documents related to Enron Corp. testified yesterday that he preserved several potentially embarrassing records, including one labeled "Smoking guns you can't extinguish." Full story...
Former Andersen partner says he obstructed justice
HOUSTON - The prosecution's star witness in the Arthur Andersen trial testified yesterday that he knew he was breaking the law when he directed employees to follow policies that led to the shredding of Enron-related documents. Full story...
Fear of probe drove Andersen to shred papers, prosecutor says
HOUSTON - Partners at Arthur Andersen "realized the law was coming" when they decided last fall to shred Enron-related documents, a federal prosecutor said yesterday before testimony began in the accounting firm's obstruction of justice trial. Full story...
Andersen trial to set the stage for main event
Today begins Act I in the prosecution of Enron. Full story...
Subject: $
Why Enron is no Michael Jordan
Every Wednesday, Legg Mason Wood Walker financial adviser Jonathan Murray answers e-mail on your investments. To be included next time, send your questions. -------------------- Full story...
Q & A
Accounting triage
Jack Ciesielski publishes the Analyst's Accounting Observer report from his office in downtown Baltimore. He is also the owner of R.G. Associates, Inc., an investment research and portfolio management firm. Ciesielski has been a certified public accountant since 1977. He recently discussed where the accounting industry will go from here. Full story...
Skilling: I didn't know
Former Enron Corp. Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling told skeptical lawmakers Thursday he left his job in August believing the energy trading giant "was in no peril" and said he did not know about the dire financial state of the partnerships that brought down the company. Full story...
Subject: $
What gives with derivatives?
Every Wednesday, Legg Mason Wood Walker financial adviser Jonathan Murray answers e-mail on your investments. To be included next time, send your questions. -------------------- Full story...
Subject: $
Enron's flameout explained and safe retirement investing
Every Wednesday, Legg Mason Wood Walker financial adviser Jonathan Murray answers e-mail on your investments. To be included next week, send your questions. -------------------- Full story...
