Liquidating Enron's Maze of Partnerships Could Cost More Than $1 Billion

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Cleaning Up After the Fall
Liquidating Enron's Maze of Partnerships Could Cost More Than $1 Billion

By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 27, 2005; Page D01

Four years after Enron Corp. collapsed, the Houston energy trader clings to life as "the financial equivalent of a Superfund site," its chairman said.

New managers are struggling to clean up after the firm's December 2001 bankruptcy -- a process they say is likely to run into 2008. Two operating divisions must be unloaded. Lawsuits against banks that helped the company hide debt must be settled or brought to trial. Leftover cash must be dispensed to creditors claiming some $60 billion.

As with everything else at Enron, a company that became a synonym for greed, a punch line for comedians and a curse word for thousands of workers who lost their retirement savings, closing shop hasn't been simple. "Soup to nuts here, you've got a few years of hard duty," said Chairman John J. Ray III.

First on the agenda is selling what remains of a more than $4 billion trading portfolio, a reminder of the days when Enron leaders appeared on the cover of business magazines touting a bold new way to swap energy and other commodities. Soon Enron's former leaders will be in the news again. Former chairman Kenneth L. Lay and onetime chief executive Jeffrey K. Skilling face trial Jan. 17 on fraud and conspiracy charges.



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[SoCalDem]

1. Hmm 4 billion portfolio? Why not just give it , in joint ownership

to the mid-and low level Enron employees who got their futures stolen from them? Let THEM decide how to "liquidate" it./.or not

[racaulk]

2. My thoughts exactly.

Give it to the Enron and Arthur Andersen employees who saw their jobs and pensions evaporate because of their corrupt leadership.

And I don't understand why Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling are just now facing trial, four years after the fact. If they are found guilty, is anyone else besides me predicting a presidential pardon? :mad: