Democrats Try to Make Hay of Enron Fall --- Lieberman to Hold Hearings As Party Aims to Play Up Company's Ties to GOP
The Wall Street Journal, 01/03/2002

Senate panel to investigate Enron
The Daily Deal, 01/03/2002

Enron case shows 'very clear suggestions of deception' - US Senator Lieberman
AFX News, 01/02/2002
Senate committee to investigate Enron collapse
Associated Press Newswires, 01/03/2002

Enron probe could reach Bush: Backed campaign: Senate committee to focus on directors' role, partnerships
National Post, 01/03/2002

Enron Probe to Include Regulators
American Banker, 01/03/2002
Andersen To Improve Audit Practices After Peer Review
Dow Jones News Service, 01/03/2002

Enron auditor says it's clean ; Andersen cites review by rival
Chicago Tribune, 01/03/2002

Mirant exits deal with Enron, Edison
The Daily Deal, 01/03/2002

Propelled by mythmakers
Chicago Tribune, 01/03/2002

Hoping It's No California, Texas Deregulates Energy
The New York Times, 01/03/2002

COMPANIES & FINANCE INTERNATIONAL - Enron collapse turns focus on pension rules.
Financial Times, 01/03/2002

Horrible Year Ends on Up Note At Cantor
Financial Health for the Firm And More Smiles for the Staff
The New York Times, 01/03/2002

INDIA PRESS: ONGC May Raise Bid For Enron's Shr In Fields
Dow Jones International News, 01/02/2002

CEO of New York City
The Daily Deal, 01/03/2002

Top Story: Interview With Monica Crowley and Ellis Henican
Fox News: The O'Reilly Factor, 01/02/2002
______________________________________________

Politics & Policy
Democrats Try to Make Hay of Enron Fall --- Lieberman to Hold Hearings As Party Aims to Play Up Company's Ties to GOP
By Michael Schroeder and Tom Hamburger
Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal

01/03/2002
The Wall Street Journal
A10
(Copyright (c) 2002, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

WASHINGTON -- In a moment of bipartisan candor, a Republican strategist recently confided to a Democratic friend that if he were in Democrats' place, he would "beat up" the GOP over its ties to the fallen energy giant, Enron Corp. 
It looks like the Democrats are going to try to do just that.
The new year at the Capitol -- a congressional-election year -- opened yesterday with an announcement from Sen. Joseph Lieberman that the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which he heads, will hold hearings into Enron's collapse when Congress returns to work later this month. That word from the former Democratic vice-presidential nominee -- who is a presidential prospect for 2004 -- is just the latest of a number of inquiries into a company with closer ties than any to President Bush. 
The Connecticut senator noted that the company and its chairman, Bush friend Kenneth Lay, were active in helping draft the Bush administration's energy plan. Mr. Lieberman added, "We have got to ask whether the advice rendered was at all self-serving." 
Mr. Lieberman emphasized that Enron's connections to the Bush administration aren't the focus of his committee's inquiry; instead, he says it will center on the precipitous collapse and what might have been done -- including by the government -- to prevent it. But Democratic operatives have been urging Mr. Lieberman, as the best-placed committee chairman, to dig into the issue, believing further exposure can only embarrass Republicans and Mr. Bush, whose own ties to Enron and Mr. Lay date back to the president's race for Texas governor. 
Enron, the nation's biggest marketer of electricity and natural gas, filed for bankruptcy-court protection following a crisis of confidence among its investors. Enron wrote off $1 billion of assets in November, revised downward its earnings of the past several years and took a $1.2 billion reduction in shareholder equity. The problems have resulted largely from Enron's dealings with private partnerships, run by some of its own executives. The company saw its market value plunge recently to about $500 million from more than $77 billion last year. 
Financial regulators had little clue what was going on inside Enron, which had major positions in little-regulated derivatives markets. That is at least partly because the Houston company had invested a lot of time and money in Washington to keep the government out of its business, and to foster GOP support for deregulation of energy and financial industries. 
Now, a half-dozen congressional panels and several federal agencies are investigating aspects of Enron's Chapter 11 reorganization. In Congress, Democrats in particular are emphasizing the numerous investors left holding stock worth pennies, the thousands of Enron employees out of work and those with retirement savings built on worthless company stock. 
It remains to be seen if the issue will resonate with voters. For one thing, Enron's energy-trading business is extremely complex; for another, some Democrats also benefited from Enron's largesse -- though hardly as much as Republicans have. Since 1990, the company has given three-quarters of its campaign donations to GOP causes. Al Gore's presidential campaign against Mr. Bush received $13,700 from Enron executives during the 2000 campaign cycle; Mr. Bush's campaign got $114,000 and his party far more. 
The Democrats' rhetorical line of attack is already clear. "The only wholly owned subsidiary of Enron not to go bankrupt is the Republican Party," said Robert Gibbs, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "Enron is a huge problem for the Republicans, and it will keep tying them in knots." 
Two House Financial Services subcommittees held the first of numerous planned hearings last month, but those were notable for a bipartisan tone. Rep. John LaFalce of New York, the committee's senior Democrat, joined chairman Mike Oxley, an Ohio Republican, in calling for a swift and thorough investigation. "We are trying to focus on the criminal, not the political," Mr. Oxley said. 
But Sen. Lieberman has shifted the tone. While he too emphasized a desire to remain bipartisan, he announced the hearings without his committee's chief Republican, Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee. He did consult with Mr. Thompson beforehand. 
The Democrat driving the issue to date has been Rep. Henry Waxman of California, but he is hampered by the fact that Democrats are the minority in the House. Last month, Mr. Waxman demanded that Vice President Dick Cheney disclose Enron's and Mr. Lay's role in crafting the administration's energy plan. Mr. Waxman and other Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee also started an "Enron tip-line" to solicit information about any alleged wrongdoing. 
Meanwhile, Republicans have gone on the offensive. Last Friday, in answer to a reporter's question, Mr. Bush said Enron must be held accountable. "There will be a lot of government inquiry into Enron and what took place there," he said. "I'm deeply concerned about the citizens of Houston who worked for Enron who lost life savings." 
But Rep. John Dingell, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has been raising questions about the failure of regulators to sniff out Enron's problems. 
In early December, he wrote Mr. Bush's appointee to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvey Pitt, demanding a thorough SEC investigation of Enron and attaching a long list of questions about its possible accounting violations. 
Separately, GOP Reps. Billy Tauzin, who heads the House energy committee, and James Greenwood, chairman of its Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, are preparing for February hearings into the role of regulators and the accounting industry in Enron's failure. 
Outside Washington, Enron already is shaping up as a political liability in its Texas home and elsewhere. For years, Enron has been among the best-known underwriters of political campaigns in Texas. But in the state's race for attorney general, both Democrat and Republican candidates have said they plan to return some or all donations from the company. 
And the decision of Mr. Bush's successor, Gov. Rick Perry, to appoint a former top Enron executive as chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission has produced a storm of protest. Two Texas citizen groups have called for an inquiry into the appointment, and the Dallas Morning News has urged the current GOP attorney general, John Cornyn, to rule on the eligibility of the Enron executive to serve in light of conflict-of-interest rules. 
Mr. Cornyn, like the Republican governor, has received more than $100,000 in contributions from Enron through the years. Moreover, he's now seeking the Senate seat held by Republican Sen. Phil Gramm, who is retiring. Yet the vulnerability of some Democrats is apparent here, too: A top Democratic candidate for the Senate seat is Rep. Ken Bentsen, who received more Enron contributions -- $42,750 -- than any House member. 
In California, meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis has suggested that Enron may have contributed to the energy crisis that struck his state last year. "I take no joy in Enron's troubles," he said last month. But, he added in a swipe aimed at the company, "Some of the companies providing power were driving a very hard bargain, I believe taking advantage of California." Earlier this year, the state's Democratic attorney general, William Lockyer, subpoenaed Enron's electricity-trading records in an attempt to show that the state was a victim of price gouging. 
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called on the Justice and Labor departments to probe whether Enron violated laws governing the retirement plans for thousands of its employees. On average, employees had more than 60% of their retirement savings in Enron shares, and because they had little flexibility to diversify or sell, many lost as much as 90% of their retirement assets when the share price plunged. 
--- Enron: Generating Inquiries

A number of congressional committees and federal agencies are
launching broad investigations of the energy-trading giant's failure,
though some have a special focus.

WHO: House Financial Services Committee
FOCUS: The role of the auditor, Arthur Andersen LLP

WHO: House Commerce Committee
FOCUS: Federal regulation of companies, Enron operations

WHO: House Education and Workforce Committee
FOCUS: Laws governing employee stock ownership

WHO: Senate Commerce Committee
FOCUS: Worker retirement funds

WHO: Senate Governmental Affairs Committee
FOCUS: Possible regulatory failures, law violations; Potential Enron
influence in Bush energy policy

WHO: Securities and Exchange Commission
FOCUS: Arthur Andersen audit practices; Enron accounting

WHO: Justice Department
FOCUS: Possible criminal activity

WHO: Labor Department
FOCUS: Enron's employee retirement plan

Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

Bankruptcies
Senate panel to investigate Enron
by Shanon D. Murray in Washington

01/03/2002
The Daily Deal
Copyright (c) 2002 The Deal LLC

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee on Jan. 2 became the fourth congressional group to launch an Enron-related investigation. More could be coming. 
Yet another congressional committee will issue subpoenas next week for corporate documents crucial to its inquiry into regulatory oversight of Enron Corp., two senators said Jan. 2.
The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee became the fourth congressional panel to launch an Enron-related probe, joining the Justice and Labor departments and the Securities and Exchange Commission. And more could be coming. Democrats on the Senate Commerce Committee have asked the Federal Trade Commission to launch its own investigation. 
At a Capitol Hill news conference Wednesday, Sen. Joe Lieberman, the chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs panel, said the committee will hold its first Enron-related hearing Jan. 24 to vet whether any "cracks" in the systems at various regulatory agencies, including the SEC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, contributed to the company's collapse. 
"This is a search for the truth, not a witch hunt," said Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat. 
Meanwhile, Carl Levin, chairman of the committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said he will subpoena documents next week from Enron's current and former directors, top company officials and its auditor, Arthur Andersen. 
The subcommittee will examine how the energy giant was governed and audited and how it used special-purpose entities, offshore entities and limited partnerships to conduct its business. 
The subcommittee will spend the next few months gathering and analyzing the documentary trail, and hearings from those subpoenas will be held later in the year, Levin said at the news conference. 
The subcommittee "will use its subpoena authority to investigate what appears to be a massive shell game with multiple layers of conflicts of interests," Levin said. 
"Thorough investigations are needed, and from different perspectives, to determine whether current law was violated and where current law is inadequate to protect the public interest," he said. 
Lieberman said the Enron investigation will be a committee priority when it returns from recess later this month. That appears to be true for much of Congress as well as federal regulatory agencies. 
Since Enron's bankruptcy filing Dec. 2, the Senate Commerce Committee, the House Financial Services Committee, the House Energy and Commerce Committee and now the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee have launched investigations. 
The SEC and Labor investigations could result in civil charges while the Justice Department's inquiries could result in criminal charges. "We'll do our best to coordinate with our colleagues," Lieberman said. 
Levin said overlapping investigations do not worry him. "There is more than enough work for the House and the Senate," Levin said after the news conference. "The problem is there is so much to look at that there may be some pieces not investigated. That's my fear." 
While Lieberman said the committee has not decided whether to ask Enron chairman Kenneth Lay or other company executives to testify, he did note that he "wouldn't consider an investigation complete without hearing from them." 
Levin said the subcommittee intends to take depositions where appropriate. 
Lay has previously declined to appear at congressional hearings but has committed to testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee in February. 
Meanwhile, late Wednesday, Andersen released a statement saying a review of its accounting and auditing quality "has been deemed to provide reasonable assurance of compliance with professional standards" and has been accepted by the Peer Review Committee of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. 
Deloitte & Touche conducted the review, which evaluated whether Andersen's system of quality control for its accounting and auditing practice meets standards set by the AICPA. Firms are reviewed every three years, but Andersen's review was expanded after financial reporting issues emerged at Enron, the firms said. 
In a comment letter, Deloitte & Touche recommended several changes Andersen should undertake but said those items "were not considered to be of sufficient significance to affect the opinion expressed in [the] report." But the report doesn't absolve Andersen. DT said the restatement of financial statements audited by a firm "generally involve numerous factors, many of which are unrelated to the effectiveness of a firm's quality control system." 
More investigation A Congressional committee has announced that it will open an investigation of Enron's business practices. The bankrupt energy conglomerate is the subject of various investigations, including one begun in October by the SEC. 
Company Enron Corp. 
CEO Kenneth L. Lay 
Headquarters Houston 
Date Action 
10/22/01 SEC begins investigation into Enron's relationship with two limited partnerships; Enron's stock falls 10% 
10/30/01 Enron's stock price still takes a beating 
11/05/01 Enron feverishly looks to sell billions of dollars in assets 
11/06/01 Enron begins talking with private equity firms as it struggles to raise $2 billion 
11/08/01 Dynegy confirms talks to acquire Enron 
11/09/01 Dynegy to buy Enron for $7.8 billion in stock 
11/12/01 Dynegy faces challenge to Enron deal 
11/19/01 Enron puts Wessex Water on the block 
11/20/01 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under pressure to approve Dynegy-Enron merger 
11/21/01 Dynegy says it will try to quicken pace of $24 billion merger 
11/26/01 Enron, Dynegy rework merger terms 
11/28/01 Dynegy backs out of $9 billion deal; Enron shares plummet to 19-year lows 
11/29/01 Enron divestitures slow as everyone awaits bankruptcy filing 
11/30/01 
Dynegy tries to block bankruptcy for Northern Natural pipeline 
12/02/01 Enron files for Chapter 11 protection in New York 
12/03/01 Enron looks to liquidate assets, receives court approval to use portion of DIP 
12/04/01 Enron sells Enron Direct to Centrica for $137 million 
12/05/01 Enron sells certain Canadian power assets to TransCanada and AltaGas for $140.1 million 
12/07/01 Many creditors file change of venue motions in Enron bankruptcy case 
12/10/01 Post-petition lender J.P. Morgan sues Enron, seeks a return of the trade receivables that backed credit facilities for Sequoia 
12/18/01 Unsecured creditor Wiser Oil's demand for documentation is dismissed by Judge Arthur Gonzalez 
12/20/01 Judge Gonzalez excused two utilities from their natural gas service contracts until a venue is decided for Enron's complex Chapter 11 case 
12/28/01 Enron receives court approval to sell $310 million in assets from subsidiaries Enron Wind Development Corp. and Enron Canada 
01/02/02 Enron to be subject of another Congressional probe 
Source: The Deal 
www.TheDeal.com

Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

Enron case shows 'very clear suggestions of deception' - US Senator Lieberman

01/02/2002
AFX News
(c) 2002 by AFP-Extel News Ltd

WASHINGTON (AFX) - Senator Joseph Lieberman said there are "very, very clear suggestions of deception" at Enron Corp and Congress is determined to discover what caused the downfall of the Houston-based energy trading group. 
Several US senators have called for the Department of Justice to investigate the share dealings of Enron Corp's senior executives and to also probe why an employee pension fund was locked down at a time when executives continued to sell their Enron stock holdings as the company's fortunes dwindled.
"This is the largest company ever to declare bankruptcy. Thousands of employees of Enron have lost their jobs, many thousands more have had their retirement savings evaporated. Unless we take a look at what happened here, we're not going to be able to protect everybody else who has a 401(K) (pension scheme) that is run by their company," Lieberman said in a interview with CNN. 
There are "very, very clear suggestions of deception," the Democratic senator said without expanding further on the allegation. 
Enron retirees have told lawmakers that the company's executive board locked them out of accessing their 401(K) pension funds when Enron's fortunes started to spiral downwards into bankruptcy. 
Enron's management decided to change the company's pension plan administrators on Oct 17 -- one day after the company's third-quarter financial results led to a 1.2 bln usd restated reduction of shareholders' equity -- thereby locking in employees from selling Enron stock in their retirement funds for some two weeks. 
Retirees and some lawmakers, allege that Enron chairman and chief executive officer Kenneth Lay and other executives shed millions of dollars in stock while they were locked out from accessing their retirement benefits over this period. 
"That's one of the things that we're going to determine in this investigation... we'll be looking at the activities of the board of directors to see what role they played in the collapse," said Democratic Senator Carl Levin, who was also interviewed by CNN. 
"We're hoping that this investigation will contribute to equity finally being given to the stockholders and the employees of Enron," Levin added. 
Lieberman chairs the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee which plans to hold a series of hearings into Enron's collapse during late January and early February. 

Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

Senate committee to investigate Enron collapse
By H. JOSEF HEBERT
Associated Press Writer

01/03/2002
Associated Press Newswires
Copyright 2002. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Enron's business practices had the mark of "a massive shell game with multiple layers of conflict of interest," says a senator who plans to subpoena documents as part of a broad investigation into the energy company's collapse. 
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Governmental Affairs investigations subcommittee, said his committee will within weeks subpoena documents from Enron's board of directors, senior managers and its auditing firm.
At the same time, the full Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing Jan. 24 into why government regulators failed to see the "red flags" at Enron and protect investors and the company's employees who have lost hundreds of millions of dollars as Enron stock plummeted. 
Enron Corp., filed for bankruptcy Dec. 2 as its stock fell from a high of $90 a share a year ago to less than $1. Thousands of Enron workers were prevented from selling Enron stock in their 401k retirement plan during the collapse. 
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., the full committee's chairman, promised Wednesday "a search for the truth, not a witch hunt." But he did not rule out an examination of Enron's relationships with the Bush administration. 
"We're going to go wherever the search takes us," Lieberman said at a news conference, noting Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay's involvement in crafting the administration's energy agenda last spring. "We've got to ask whether the advice rendered (by Lay) was at all self serving." 
Lay, a longtime friend of the president, was a prominent contributor and fund raiser for Bush's presidential campaign. Other Enron executives also gave significantly to Bush's campaign, according to the watchdog Center for Public Integrity. 
The Senate committee's initial focus will be on why the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other regulators did not foresee the problems and raise concern about Enron's business practices. 
"The untimely and wholly unexpected failure of a corporate giant like Enron is an alarm call to all of us in government," said Lieberman. He said it has sent shockwaves into the investment community and concern about energy industry deregulation. 
Levin's subcommittee planned to target Enron's board of directors and auditors to determine what they knew of Enron's sometimes secretive business dealings, including the use of questionable partnerships and what Levin called "offshore entities." 
Internal Enron documents reportedly show that top company officials were directly involved in the creation and oversight of the partnerships, and that they viewed them as crucial to company growth - even as they disguised an estimated $500 million in Enron debt not included on the company's books. 
The procedures set up by Enron required former chief executive and president Jeff Skilling and two other senior Enron officials to approve all transactions with the partnerships, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing the documents. 
Levin said he was dismayed about "what appears to be a massive shell game with multiple layers of conflict of interest" that contributed to Enron's collapse at a time when most investors believed the company to be thriving. 
Top Enron executives and directors "apparently reaped almost $1 billion in stock sales in 2000 and 2001," said Levin, while hundreds of Enron workers were barred from selling Enron stock in their 401k retirement fund during the company's collapse. 
Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the subcommittee's ranking Republican, said in a statement that she wants to know whether Enron executives and board members, when selling their stock, "knew of the company's impending financial situation." 
Enron - once the seventh largest in the country in terms of revenue - filed for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 2. 
Last month, during a House hearing, Arthur Andersen LLP defended its work for Enron, but its chief executive conceded shortcomings in the accounting profession. "Our system of regulation and discipline will have to be improved," said Anderson chief Joseph Berardino. 
On Wednesday, Andersen released the results of an independent review that found the company's work provides "reasonable assurance of compliance with professional standards." The review was conducted by another accounting firm, Deloitte & Touche. 
The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee is among a half dozen committees and subcommittees expected to hold hearings in both the House and Senate in the coming months on Enron's collapse, one of the largest ever. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Labor Department also have investigations under way.

Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

Financial Post: News
Enron probe could reach Bush: Backed campaign: Senate committee to focus on directors' role, partnerships
Reuters, with files from The Associated Press

01/03/2002
National Post
National
FP3
(c) National Post 2002. All Rights Reserved.

WASHINGTON - Fallen energy giant Enron Corp. faces further scrutiny on Capitol Hill with another committee announcing yesterday it would probe the company's collapse, possibly looking at connections between Enron and the White House. 
The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's permanent subcommittee on investigations will subpoena documents next week and hold a hearing on Jan. 24.
A Wall Street darling just a few months ago, Enron on Dec. 2 made the largest bankruptcy court filing in U.S. history after a rescue takeover by rival Dynegy Inc. fell apart amid investor concerns about Enron's murky finances. 
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who chairs the full government affairs committee, did not rule out looking into connections between Enron and the administration of George W. Bush. 
Enron was a major backer of President Bush's election campaign. "There are some interconnections here with the Bush administration, but that is not the focus of this investigation," said Mr. Lieberman, a Democrat. 
Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, said the investigation would focus on the role of Enron's directors in the collapse; accounting firm Andersen, which audited Enron's financial statements; and the company's use of complex financial partnerships. 
Houston-based Enron is under investigation in Washington by at least five congressional committees, the market-regulating Securities and Exchange Commission and the departments of Justice and Labor. 
Reports recently emerged that a week before filing for bankruptcy protection, Enron contributed US$100,000 to Democrats after giving nearly all its prior donations this year to Republicans. 
The money went to the organization that aids Senate Democratic candidates, but a recently hired attorney for Enron insisted the donations were unrelated to congressional investigations. 
Robert Bennett, a lawyer who represented former president Bill Clinton and other high-profile clients, said the money was pledged months before Enron's collapse prompted the congressional inquiries. Rather, he said, the shift reflected the Democrats taking control of the Senate this year. 
"Donations of this type reflect certain political realities which are followed by all major corporations," Mr. Bennett said yesterday about Enron's US$50,000 cheques on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. 
Once ranked No. 7 on the Fortune 500 list of top companies, Enron's stock closed at US63 cents, up US3 cents on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday -- off from an August, 2000, high of US$90.56. 
Thousands of Enron employees have lost their jobs and much of their retirement savings. A 401(k) retirement plan that made many of them heavily dependent on company stock came under fire at a congressional hearing last month when employees said they were unable to sell their holdings when the stock price plunged. 
In other developments yesterday, Enron bankruptcy judge Arthur Gonzalez put off ruling on whether to compel Jeffrey McMahon, Enron chief financial officer, to testify about why the company filed for Chapter 11 protection in New York rather than Houston. 
Dynegy and other unsecured creditors want Mr. McMahon to give deposition testimony on Enron's choice of venue for the bankruptcy filing. They've asked Judge Gonzalez to transfer the largest bankruptcy case ever to Houston, where Enron is based. 
Enron opposes the request to order Mr. McMahon's testimony, calling it "unnecessary, unduly burdensome, and disruptive." 
"Courts have repeatedly recognized that demands for depositions of high-ranking corporate officers are often misused as a tool of harassment and should not be allowed unless there is no other source for the same information," Enron said in a motion filed Monday seeking to quash the request.

Black & White Photo: Doug Mills, The Associated Press / Sen. Joseph Lieberman chairs the Senate committee investigating collapsed energy trader Enron Corp. 
Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

Washington
Enron Probe to Include Regulators
BY NICOLE DURAN

01/03/2002
American Banker
4
Copyright (c) 2002 Thomson Financial, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

WASHINGTON -- When the Senate convenes this month, a top priority for its Governmental Affairs Committee will be to investigate whether holes in the regulatory safety net played a role in the quick and costly collapse of the energy trading titan Enron Corp., committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., said Wednesday. 
Government regulators, outside auditors, and equity analysts will share the hot seat with Enron officials when Sens. Lieberman and Carl Levin, D-Mich., who chairs the panel's permanent subcommittee on investigations, begin their probe Jan. 24.
Sen. Lieberman said the policies of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Labor Department will come under scrutiny. 
"Both of us will be looking to identify the loopholes or failures in our current laws and regulatory schemes that allowed this disaster to happen," Sen. Levin said. "The full committee will be looking at what the experts are saying about the collapse and what role various federal agencies had in overseeing Enron." 
The subcommittee will examine Enron from the inside to learn what its directors and officials knew and how they behaved, he said. Subpoenas for documents from Enron's top officials are expected soon. 
Andersen, Enron's auditor, will also be scrutinized, as will the analysts who covered the company, Sen. Levin said. "Something was rotten in the state of Enron, and a lot of knowledgeable people on Wall Street were either duped, didn't care, or purposefully went along for the ride." 
Sen. Lieberman said that the "built-in protections" of independent analysts and auditors failed, and that he will call on "experts on investing and regulation of the financial markets, energy and derivative trading, and pensions and retirement savings" to find the system's flaws.

http://www.americanbanker.com 
photo, Sen. Lieberman; Sen. Levin 
Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

Andersen To Improve Audit Practices After Peer Review

01/03/2002
Dow Jones News Service
(Copyright (c) 2002, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

CHICAGO -(Dow Jones)- Andersen said a peer review found that its accounting and auditing quality provides reasonable assurance of compliance with professional standards, but in response to certain comments, it has taken, or will take, the recommended steps to improve its accounting and auditing practices. 
Deloitte & Touche conducted the peer review, the scope of which was expanded after financial reporting issues emerged at Enron Corp. (ENE).
In a press release Wednesday, Andersen said Deloitte & Touche's opinion was "unmodified," without qualification, yet three issues, which weren't deemed significant enough to affect the opinion, were raised in an attached comment letter. 
The comments related to documentation of certain auditing procedures on some engagements; communications with audit committees in some instances; and management representation letters that needed more tailoring in some cases, Andersen said. 
Earlier Wednesday, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said the subcommittee will issue subpoenas to Andersen, Enron's outside auditor, next week as part of an investigation into the financial collapse of Enron. 
In testimony prepared for delivery to subcommittees of the House Financial Services Committee last month, Andersen Chief Executive Joseph Berardino defended the firm's audit of Enron but said accountants will have to make changes to restore confidence after Enron's fall. 
Berardino rejected suggestions that fees paid by Enron for auditing and consulting may have affected Andersen's work for the Houston energy company. 
The expanded Deloitte & Touche peer review of Andersen covered the controls and procedures at Andersen's Houston office, which was responsible for Enron's audits. 
In total, the peer and Andersen's internal practice review looked at 240 Andersen audit engagements in more than 30 Andersen offices and the Andersen national office. The engagements reviewed by Deloitte & Touche and Andersen involved about 45% of Andersen's U.S. audit partners. 
Andersen said the engagements selected for review represented a cross-section of Andersen's accounting and auditing practice, with emphasis on higher-risk engagements. It included examining working paper files and reports, and interviewing engagement personnel.

Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

Business
Enron auditor says it's clean ; Andersen cites review by rival
Delroy Alexander, Tribune staff reporter

01/03/2002
Chicago Tribune
North Sports Final ; N
3
(Copyright 2002 by the Chicago Tribune)

Accounting firm Andersen said Wednesday that its auditing practice responsible for checking the books of bankrupt energy trader Enron Corp. has been given a clean bill of health in a peer review by another accounting firm, but some observers criticized the findings. 
The review, performed by rival Big Five firm Deloitte & Touche, was part of an assessment carried out once every three years to check the quality of financial reporting of top firms.
Andersen's accounting systems were "deemed to provide reasonable assurance of compliance with professional standards," according to a statement from the Chicago-based firm. "Deloitte's opinion was unmodified, without qualification," for the year ended Aug. 31, Andersen added. 
But the integrity of the process was criticized almost immediately by analysts, including professor Lynn Turner, a former Securities and Exchange Commission chief accountant and current director of the Center for Quality Financial Reporting at Colorado State University. 
"If the process was really credible, I don't think we'd be having the rash of problems we are having today," Turner said. 
Turner cited reporting problems that have cost investors billions of dollars at Enron, such other Andersen clients as Waste Management Inc. and Sunbeam Corp., and similar high-profile failures at Cendant Corp., Rite Aid Corp. and MicroStrategy Inc. after audits by other accounting firms. 
Critics of the peer review process point to the fact that since the cooperative assessments began in 1978, no Big Five accounting firm has received a qualified opinion of its accounting procedures from a rival. 
When Enron filed for bankruptcy protection in December, it was Andersen's Houston office's largest client. The energy trader's collapse is the subject of a SEC investigation, lawsuits and a number of congressional probes. 
According to Deloitte's letter of comment, which accompanied the unqualified opinion, Andersen was told about a need to improve minor documentation and communication problems. 
Andersen's peer review was all but complete when it asked in November for the review to be expanded to include the Houston office responsible for auditing Enron, which had disclosed financial reporting problems that led to $1.2 billion being chopped from shareholders' equity. 
The assessment did not look specifically at the audit Andersen performed on Enron, because there is "pending litigation" over reporting problems, according to Deloitte's letter.

Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

M and A
Mirant exits deal with Enron, Edison
by Danny Fortson in San Francisco

01/03/2002
The Daily Deal
Copyright (c) 2002 The Deal LLC

With the energy industry reeling since Enron filed for bankruptcy last month, Mirant is one of several companies whose credit ratings have been slashed because of concerns of overly aggressive growth plans and highly leveraged positions. 
Mirant Corp. has ended a proposed $1.3 billion purchase of a power plant from Enron Corp. and Edison International.
The move is just one piece of a sweeping budget overhaul the company announced Dec. 20, a day after Moody's Investors Service downgraded the company's credit rating to "junk" status. 
"We expected that Mirant would not close on this deal," said Ellen Lapson, an analyst with credit rating agency Fitch Ibca, Duff and Phelps that last month put the company on ratings watch. "The question is whether their termination will stick." 
Mirant agreed July 31 to buy EcoElectrica Holdings Ltd., a liquefied natural gas-fired power plant in Peneuelas, Puerto Rico, for $586 million in cash and $700 million in debt. Enron Asset Holdings, an Enron subsidiary that is not part of the energy company's bankruptcy, owns 47.5% of the plant, and Edison Mission Energy, a unit of Edison International, owns 50%. 
Rosemead, Calif.-based Edison, which has flirted with bankruptcy, said in a statement Dec. 31 that it "does not agree that Mirant has the right to terminate the agreement and is reviewing its alternatives." An Edison spokesman decline comment on whether the company planned to mount a legal challenge. 
"We don't agree that Mirant has the right to terminate the agreement, and accordingly we're evaluating our options," Enron spokesman John Ambler said. 
Mirant initially disclosed its intent to terminate the deal in a Dec. 20 press release detailing its effort to beef up its balance sheet. In the statement, the Atlanta power producer said it foresaw "no closing of Eco Electrica in 2001 due to non-satisfaction of closing conditions." 
"Under the purchase agreement, if the transaction does not close on or before Dec. 31, 2001, then the purchase agreement is cancelable by any party," Mirant announced in a Dec. 26 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 
"If, as we expect, the transaction does not close before year-end, we will reevaluate the desirability of the transaction based on the then-current circumstances." 
With the energy industry reeling since Enron filed for bankruptcy last month, Mirant is one of a number of power companies whose credit ratings have been slashed because of concerns over overly aggressive growth plans and highly leveraged positions. Dynegy Inc. of Houston and Calpine Corp. of San Jose, Calif., for example, also have suffered credit downgrades. 
Lapson applauded Mirant's move to bail out of the deal, saying it will help "bring their resources into balance with the current market situation." 
Other cost-cutting moves under way at the company include a 40%, or $1.5 billion, reduction in the company's capital budget, a common equity offering that raised $759 million, and asset sales. 
Though Fitch has said it is not worried about the company's near-term liquidity, it is scrutinizing Mirant's credit rating. 
Significant to the company's recovery is Mirant's pending $1.63 billion sale of its 44% ownership stake in Berlin utility Bewag AG to Swedish state-owned electricity company Vattenfall AB, which announced in early December. 
But additional assets sale may prove difficult. That's because Enron's bankruptcy has forced the former energy giant to put its power assets up for sale, undercutting efforts by Mirant and other companies trying to unload plants and pipelines. 
Meanwhile, the stock price and market capitalization of many would-be buyers have sunk in Enron's wake, diminishing the pool of bidders. 
That means companies such as Mirant face not only lower prices for their properties, but also a scarcity of financing for prospective acquirers. Sinking power prices have further undermined the value of certain Mirant's assets, Lapson said. 
Separately, Mirant on Wednesday sold its Empresa Electrica del Norte Grande SA plant in Chile, which had about $340 million in debt, to F.S. Inversiones Ltda. for $4.5 million. 
www.TheDeal.com

Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

Commentary
Propelled by mythmakers
Don Wycliff Don Wycliff is the Tribune's public editor

01/03/2002
Chicago Tribune
North Sports Final ; N
15
(Copyright 2002 by the Chicago Tribune)

Back in the late 1960s, during my undergraduate years at the University of Notre Dame, I was in awe of a fellow in the class ahead of mine. He seemed to have read every book there was and he always got top grades. But most impressive was the way he talked: Ask him a five-second question and he could discourse for an hour. 
I must confess I often didn't understand what he was communicating, but it sure was impressive the way he did it.
We finally ended up in a class together. It was an English seminar, taught by Father Charlie Sheedy, who was dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the time and whose name now graces that college's highest teaching award. 
One day well into the semester I stayed after class to talk with Father Sheedy. As I stood in front of him, he looked distractedly toward me over the top of his glasses, shook his head and muttered, more to himself than to me, "That guy [he named the fellow who awed me], he gets started talking and I don't understand what he's talking about." 
I thought of that the other day as I was reading an article in Fortune magazine about the collapse of Enron, the Houston-based energy-trading company. Or is it a pipeline operator? Or maybe something else altogether? 
That was 90 percent of the problem at Enron: As the company flew higher and higher, nobody on the outside and very few on the inside could figure out exactly what was keeping it aloft, how it was making the money it allegedly was making. 
The other half, as Yogi Berra would say, is that nobody asked tough questions. There weren't enough Charlie Sheedys around to ask, in his disarmingly gentle but persistent-as-a-yelping-terrier fashion, "What the heck do you mean by that?" 
The guys at the top of Enron promised to spin straw into gold, to outfit their shareholders like emperors in exquisite new garments. For a time they seemed to do just that. And nobody, apparently, asked how. 
The Fortune article suggests that was at least in part "because Enron delivered what the Street [Wall Street] most cared about: smoothly growing earnings." 
I suspect there was another reason at least as important: People just didn't want to admit they didn't understand what these financial alchemists were up to. They didn't want to mark themselves as ignorant, unhip, not with it. 
Truth is, however, that for all our affluence and despite the growth over the last quarter century in 401(k)'s and Individual Retirement Accounts and investments in the stock market, Americans remain astonishingly ignorant of how business and investing work. 
Not without reason has the brokerage firm Merrill Lynch recently undertaken an advertising campaign with comedian-actor-writer Steve Martin describing his personal bewilderment about investments and how the firm has helped him. (Full disclosure: I am a Merrill Lynch client also.) 
Given the size of the American economy, it's a wonder that Enron- type fiascoes don't happen more often than they do. But when they do- -Long-Term Capital Management, Sunbeam, Cendant--they always seem to happen the same way: Some fellow comes along with a whole new way of making money, foolproof and scientific, and all that's needed for the method to work is to suspend disbelief. 
We used to think such confidence schemes were for the little folk- -the unlucky old lady who met a kindly stranger on the street and was persuaded against all reason to turn over all of her life's savings to him. 
- - - 
But all of economics and business ultimately are about confidence. It can be well- or poorly placed. In the case of Enron, it looks to have been utterly misplaced. 
Is it just me or is everybody's e-mail inbox being flooded these days with ads for pornography? And is it just me or has everybody noticed that they've grown increasingly smutty and perverted and violent? 
Teenagers seem to be the current hot-selling item. Teens of every kind in every kind of attitude and with every kind of creature. 
I'm no prude and I am, as a matter of principle, in favor of as wide-open and unfettered an Internet as possible. But two to three dozen separate slices of this pornographic spam daily is about to turn me into an advocate of some sort of regulation. 
---------- 
E-mail: dwycliff@tribune.com

PHOTO; Caption: PHOTO: Enron employees watched their 401(k) accounts, loaded with Enron stock that matched their contributions, dwindle as shares tumbled from nearly $84 a year ago to less than a dollar. AP photo by David J. Phillip. 
Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

National Desk; Section A
Hoping It's No California, Texas Deregulates Energy
By JIM YARDLEY

01/03/2002
The New York Times
Page 18, Column 5
c. 2002 New York Times Company

HOUSTON, Jan. 2 -- Less than a year after the nation's most-populous state, California, endured blackouts and political and economic turmoil when it deregulated the power industry, the second-most-populous state, Texas, this week began its own deregulation plan with officials promising that there would be no reprise of California's chaos. 
But consumer advocates, while generally agreeing that the Texas plan included better safeguards than California's, expressed skepticism that residential customers would benefit from long-term reductions as energy providers competed for business. These advocates also warned that Texas, like California, failed to provide adequate protection to ensure that the state did not suffer from electricity shortages as demand increased.
For Texas, deregulation comes not long after the Enron Corporation, the Houston energy giant that championed deregulated energy markets, collapsed into bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the chairman of the state agency that will oversee the deregulated electricity market, has come under fire for his ties to Enron. 
The official start of deregulation in Texas was New Year's Day, but today was the first business day of operation and, as yet, few of the 4.7 million eligible households had chosen to switch providers away from the longstanding utilities. State officials predicted that the transition would be gradual, particularly for residential customers, many of whom are still unaware that change is afoot. Nor have electricity retailers rushed into the residential market; as yet, 41 new retailers have registered, but most are seeking commercial and industrial clients. 
Terry Hadley, spokesman for the Texas Public Utility Commission, the agency overseeing the electricity marketplace, said electricity retailers were ''sharpening their pencils to see what kind of offers they can make.'' Several companies are already marketing to residential customers. and Mr. Hadley predicted that such appeals would intensify in coming months. 
Still uncertain is whether Texas customers will embrace deregulation, particularly after the problems in California. The rules here establish an immediate retail price reduction of 11 percent to 17 percent, a drop partly attributable to the low price of natural gas, which is often used to fuel electric generation plants. This savings is built into the ''price to beat,'' the state-mandated price per kilowatt hour that the old utilities will be allowed to charge under deregulation to keep their customers. New retailers will be allowed to offer lower prices as a way to entice customers to switch. 
Texas officials have taken pains to reassure consumers -- and journalists -- that California's problems were unique. 
In California, the state deregulated the wholesale power market while keeping retail prices capped. This caused the state's two biggest public utilities to lose billions of dollars when wholesale prices spiked and the retail price caps prevented them from passing the costs along to consumers. One reason the prices jumped was the price of natural gas, then at a record high. 
California officials, including Gov. Gray Davis, also accused several energy companies, including Enron, of manipulating prices and making the state's problems worse, a charge the companies denied. 
California's problems were also partly attributable to a lack of supply; the state had not built a major power plant in roughly a decade. 
The state endured rolling blackouts and other problems before federal regulators ordered restraints on electricity prices last summer. In September, the California Public Utilities Commission voted to shift away from deregulation. 
While about two dozen states, including most of those in the Northeast, have begun deregulation, others, like Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma have postponed plans in the wake of California's problems. Texas officials, on the other hand, express confidence in their plan. 
Unlike California, Texas deregulated the wholesale electrical market in 1995, providing a time buffer to work out any kinks before introducing retail deregulation this year. And also unlike California, Texas has seen about 30 power plants built in the state in the last six years. Officials say the state's electrical supply exceeds demand by 23 percent. 
Nor does the state's plan mandate the sort of retail price caps that crippled the California utilities. 
''We have more than enough capacity and supply of electricity,'' Mr. Hadley said. ''And the mechanics are in place to make adjustments for any dramatic spike in fuel costs.'' 
Consumer advocates are skeptical. Carol Biedrzycki, executive director of Texas Ratepayers Organization to Save Energy, said the state should have required electricity providers to maintain a ''reserve margin'' of electrical capacity of roughly 15 percent above demand. Ms. Biedrzycki said she believed that state officials had inflated power-generating capacity and could face problems of increasing demand in a few years. 
''In order to keep the prices stable, we have to have a reserve margin,'' she said. 
The Texas Public Utility Commission has been in the spotlight recently because of questions of whether its chairman, Max Yzaguirre, a former Enron executive appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, misrepresented his connections to the company on state disclosure forms. Last month, as Enron was in the midst of bankruptcy and laying off more than 4,000 employees, Mr. Yzaguirre revised his disclosure forms to expand the list of Enron-related companies to which he had been connected. 
Initially, he had listed his position with Enron's affiliate in Mexico. But his revised listing showed his membership on the board of the Enron North America Corporation and other related companies. Mr. Yzaguirre has attributed the omission to a simple oversight, but a spokesman for a leading Democratic candidate for governor, Tony Sanchez, questioned whether Mr. Yzaguirre had a conflict of interest. One of the new retailers seeking to enter the market, the New Power Company, is partly owned by Enron. 
Meanwhile, Mr. Hadley, the spokesman for the commission, said Enron's bankruptcy should not have an impact on deregulation in Texas. Some commercial customers had signed up with two Enron-related electricity retailers, he said, but state regulators are making certain that those customers can be switched to other providers.

Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

COMPANIES & FINANCE INTERNATIONAL - Enron collapse turns focus on pension rules.
By ELIZABETH WINE.

01/03/2002
Financial Times
(c) 2002 Financial Times Limited . All Rights Reserved

COMPANIES & FINANCE INTERNATIONAL - Enron collapse turns focus on pension rules - But a change in the law looks unlikely, writes Elizabeth Wine. 
The collapse of Enron, the energy trader, highlighted an uncomfortable fact about some US company retirement plans: workers at many of the largest companies have a dangerously high exposure to their employer because large chunks of their retirement plans are invested in the company's own stock.
In spite of calls for regulations to end such risky concentration and a bill introduced to Congress to cap company stock in retirement plans, industry watchers and congressional insiders say new rules are unlikely to emerge. 
About 60 per cent of Enron's $2.1bn retirement plan was in Enron stock and the fund was devastated by the share price plunge from a high of $80 last year to less than $1. 
Such a high concentration is par for the course among large US companies. According to a study of 219 of the largest defined contribution retirement plans, 45 of them - 20 per cent - have more than half their portfolios invested in company stock. 
The survey, by the Institute of Management and Administration, a business publisher, shows 25 plans have more than 60 per cent allocated to company shares. 
US companies receive generous tax breaks for matching employees' contributions to retirement plans and using shares makes contributions cheaper. The practice also settles a large block of shares with sympathetic owners, providing ballast in choppy markets. 
In December, the Democratic US Senators Barbara Boxer of California and Jon Corzine of New Jersey proposed legislation that would cap employer stock in such funds, called 401(k) plans, at 20 per cent. 
However, pension industry participants say the situation is not serious enough to really provoke change. Thousands of Enron employees were left with no nest egg, but it was just one company and there is no reason to believe that the off-balance-sheet deals that caused its demise are systemic. 
Part of the reason for the reluctance to enact laws, even in the face of public outrage, is the pro-business, anti-regulatory bent of a majority Republican Congress. Congress has created and reinforced that culture, by passing the tax breaks and other incentives, for the past 40 years. 
Dallas Salisbury, head of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a pension policy group in Washington, notes that the defined contribution plans were designed to help workers retire with company stock - not to provide a diversified investment portfolio for retirement. 
Mr Salisbury suggests attempts to regulate the amount of company stock in defined contribution plans would hurt the very employees that policy-makers seek to help. Companies faced with a strict curtailment of their ability to contribute company stock would probably opt to halt contributions, he says. 
He may be right. Ford Motor for one has recently suspended its practice of contributing 60 cents for every $1 its workers contribute to their retirement fund. 
Sources close to Senator Corzine's office say he is considering another solution. Lawmakers could eliminate a clause in the 1974 retirement plan legislation that exempts companies from having to follow the principles of diversification when it comes to their own stock. 
"If that exemption were repealed, it would have the same effect as a cap," said Eli Gottesdiener, an attorney leading one of four employee lawsuits against Enron. 
However, without a cap, there would still be a grey area to allow companies to interpret "prudent diversification" as they wish. 
(c) Copyright Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. 
http://www.ft.com.

Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

Business/Financial Desk; Section C
Horrible Year Ends on Up Note At Cantor
Financial Health for the Firm And More Smiles for the Staff
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES

01/03/2002
The New York Times
Page 1, Column 4
c. 2002 New York Times Company

As Howard W. Lutnick, the chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, headed to Florida last weekend to see out the worst year of his life, he found himself, beyond all expectations, with good news to share. 
''I have told my families'' -- as Mr. Lutnick affectionately calls the survivors of the colleagues he lost on Sept. 11 -- ''that Cantor will be profitable in the fourth quarter,'' he said. With a faint trace of his old swagger, he added: ''We will be highly profitable -- not barely profitable, but highly profitable.''
The achievement would have been merely satisfying for the Wall Street bond-trading firm in a normal year. But ''normal'' and ''Cantor'' parted company on the day the terrorist attacks destroyed the firm's headquarters at the top of the World Trade Center and killed 658 of the 960 people working there, including Mr. Lutnick's brother, Gary. Since then, simply surviving might have been news enough for Cantor, which has promised 25 percent of any future profits to the families of those who were lost. Instead, Mr. Lutnick said in an interview, Cantor ended 2001 profitable enough to pay for the first of 10 years of promised health insurance for the families, with cash left over to distribute in mid-February as the first installment on a $100,000 minimum gift pledged to each family. 
The company bank accounts have been easier to repair than the people. Mr. Lutnick says he thinks of each surviving employee as ''a miracle.'' Nevertheless, there have been layoffs as the company has pulled out of weak businesses, and those have been more than usually bruising. 
In addition, some employees have been unable to go to work at all since Sept. 11 because of the emotional trauma they experienced, one executive said. ''We know that the greater impact of this will come three to six months down the road,'' this executive said. ''You have to wonder where some of these people will be then.'' 
But although all the Cantor employees still wrestle with the grief of having lost hundreds of close friends and colleagues -- one who was critically injured died not long ago, bringing fresh pain -- some say their days now include a little more laughter, a bit of optimism, a sense of having weathered the very worst of a continuing storm. 
''We smile,'' one executive said. ''We laugh. We're here together. We have a purpose.'' 
The people who have joined the firm since Sept. 11, almost exclusively in the stock-trading operations, ''have gotten a chance to get acclimated,'' said Philip Marber, the senior managing director who used to lose sleep worrying over how to recreate the well-oiled trading desk he lost. ''A little more chemistry is starting to occur. It's kind of jelling a little bit -- which is what we were hoping would happen.'' 
The surviving families seem more content with Mr. Lutnick, whose tearful televised promises to help were met with angry suspicion by early October. The company's new charity fund has distributed nearly $9 million in gifts -- Mr. Lutnick and other partners recently offered a $5 million matching grant to help the fund raise $10 million more -- and Cantor has paid roughly $45 million in promised bonuses and other benefits to the families since November. 
Mr. Lutnick is not bitter about the reaction, he said. 
''It was a moment in time,'' he said. ''They're sad it happened; I'm sad it happened. But it's past, it's over.'' 
In recent months, as he pulled out of a media spotlight that had blistered him in the weeks immediately after the attacks, he mailed 1,300 to 1,400 handwritten notes to the families of his lost employees. 
A private partnership, Cantor is not required to disclose profits. But it is also the majority owner of eSpeed, a publicly traded electronic trading network, which must keep investors informed about important trends. Here, too, Mr. Lutnick, as the chairman and chief executive, has room to boast. 
''A few weeks ago, I had the incredible pleasure of announcing that eSpeed would be profitable for the first time, in the fourth quarter of 2001,'' he said. Forecasting profit of a penny to a nickel a share, Mr. Lutnick added: ''We're not going to just make 'earnings per share,' which you can do with some accounting games, but we are going to make actual money.'' 
The eSpeed stock, suspended from Nasdaq trading for 18 days after Sept. 11, rallied after Mr. Lutnick's announcement. It closed yesterday at $8.35 a share, not far from its Sept. 10 closing price of $8.69, but nowhere near its peak of almost $83 a share in March 2000, or even its initial offering price two years ago of $22. 
''There are not many e-commerce companies left standing, let alone ones that have met their forecasts,'' Mr. Lutnick said. 
It is not possible to say how these gains will affect Mr. Lutnick's own compensation. At Cantor, he is the general managing partner of a private limited partnership, which does not disclose compensation for any of its partners, including Mr. Lutnick. At eSpeed, where his 2000 salary was $350,000 and his bonus was $650,000, his 2001 compensation has not yet been made public. 
The rebounding stock market was one important ingredient in the fourth-quarter recovery at Cantor, of course. Fortunately for Cantor, some 75 percent of the firm's top revenue producers in its stock-trading business worked outside the doomed New York office. 
Yesterday, Cantor opened an office in Shrewsbury, N.J., easing the crowding in the makeshift trading room Mr. Marber set up in Midtown Manhattan after the attacks. The new suburban office will start with 10 people, but Mr. Marber hopes it will grow to about 25 if the firm's stock-trading business continues to thrive. 
Cantor and eSpeed each carried $40 million in property insurance and $25 million in business-interruption coverage, according to Mr. Lutnick. That is expected to largely cover the property and business damage, including an estimated $32.4 million in total losses at eSpeed and additional undisclosed partnership losses at Cantor. 
But Cantor's recovering profits also benefited, perversely, from some terrible luck -- its own and that of the Enron Corporation. 
Well before the attacks, Cantor had begun to shift its core business, trading government and corporate bonds for big institutional clients, from expensive human traders to the less-expensive electronic trading system operated by eSpeed. With the sudden loss of so many of its traders, Cantor was forced overnight to shift more of its lower-margin business to eSpeed. Though eSpeed itself lost about 180 of its 477 worldwide employees, it was nevertheless able to resume operations within 48 hours of the attacks. 
''We always knew that eSpeed would be our future,'' said Joseph C. Noviello, now that company's chief information officer. ''But that future arrived instantly on Sept. 11.'' 
With that future, Cantor has stepped out of about a dozen markets where its traders were once active. ''There was too much of a human loss to go back and try to rebuild it the old way,'' Mr. Lutnick said. ''We have to be different; we have to play the hands that have been dealt to us.'' 
To be sure, eSpeed still faces stiff competition in the rapidly consolidating electronic bond-trading arena, which has shrunk by almost a third of its players over the last year, according to a tally by the Bond Market Association. But Mr. Lutnick says eSpeed is still ''the dominant system for trading U.S. Treasury securities around the country,'' and Wall Street analysts generally agree. 
In addition, eSpeed got a boost from the trouble at Enron, the giant energy company that filed for bankruptcy a month ago. Before its collapse, Enron was doing a bustling business through Enron Online, its energy trading service. After Enron failed, that trading shifted to more diverse trading networks, including TradeSpark, which is jointly owned by Cantor, eSpeed and five large energy companies including a subsidiary of the Williams Companies. 
Indeed, TradeSpark is powered by eSpeed's technology and pays eSpeed a commission on each transaction, Mr. Noviello explained. ''So that business has seen enormous growth since the fall of Enron,'' he said. 
But despite a more upbeat mood and a strong sense of having delivered on an important pledge to their lost friends' families, everyone at Cantor is ready to leave 2001 behind, employees said. 
''Last week, to top it all off, I got hit by a cab,'' Mr. Marber said. ''Right on 39th Street. A lot of bumps and bruises, nothing worse. But I remember thinking, as I picked myself up: 'Please, I just want this year to end.' ''

Photos: Howard W. Lutnick, left, the chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, had good news to share last week: a profitable fourth quarter. At right, Philip Marber, left, and Joseph C. Noviello, executives who have been instrumental in the firm's recovery. (Justin Lane for The New York Times [left] Librado Romero/The New York Times [above]) Chart: ''Back To Before'' The stock of eSpeed, an electronic trading firm almost wholly owned by Cantor Fitzgerald, has risen close to its pre-Sept. 11 level in recent months on reports that it would be profitable in the fourth quarter. But the stock is still far short of its March 2000 peak of almost $83 a share. Graph tracks the daily closing price of eSpeed shares from Sept. 10 through January. (Source: Bloomberg Financial Markets) 
Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

INDIA PRESS: ONGC May Raise Bid For Enron's Shr In Fields

01/02/2002
Dow Jones International News
(Copyright (c) 2002, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

NEW DELHI -(Dow Jones)- Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (P.ONG) may raise its $300 million offer for acquiring Enron Corp.'s (ENE) 30% stake in the Panna-Mukta and Tapti offshore oil and natural gas fields, reports the Business Standard. 
"We are open to negotiations on our offer price," the newspaper quoted an unidentified senior ONGC official as saying.
State-owned ONGC holds a 40% stake in the fields, while Reliance Industries Ltd. (P.REL) owns the remaining 30%. 
Enron operates the fields which are located off India's western coast.

Newspaper Web site: http://www.business-standard.com 
-By Himendra Kumar; Dow Jones Newswires; 91-11-461-9426; himendra.kumar@dowjones.com

Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	

Deal Sense
CEO of New York City
by Jeffrey Kanige

01/03/2002
The Daily Deal
Copyright (c) 2002 The Deal LLC

Acting like a Wall Street CEO, Michael Bloomberg's first significant action as New York City mayor is to trim the budget with promised layoffs. 
Michael Bloomberg, an unlikely politician who made his name and fortune as chief executive of a media empire, took over as mayor of New York Tuesday and immediately introduced a CEO's mentality to City Hall.
Unfortunately for New Yorkers, it is an airline CEO's mentality. 
With the city poised to reap tens of billions of dollars in federal bailout funds, Bloomberg's first significant action was to announce layoffs. Mayor Mike said he would cut his own staff by 20% and urged other elected officials to do the same. Soon, small packets of heavily salted nuts will become ubiquitous on subway cars and the Broadway Local will be subject to three-hour delays due to bad weather in Boston. 
Of course, it could be worse. Bloomberg could adopt an AT&T CEO's mentality and proclaim his intention to remake the city into a national colossus by buying Camden, N.J., Savannah, Ga. and Bettendorf, Iowa for $100 billion. Then, after spending billions on new roads and bridges, a hostile takeover bid would force the mayor-CEO to sell Manhattan and Brooklyn to Philadelphia for $70 billion. With his vision shredded, Mayor Mike's only consolation would come from being named sanitation commissioner in the new city. 
Or he could adopt an Enron CEO's mentality and become a Wall Street darling by consistently producing a solid municipal balance sheet -- even though nobody is quite sure how he is accomplishing such a feat while tax revenues are shrinking. It will soon become clear, however, that the mayor-CEO has hidden the city's debt by shifting it offshore to the Long Island suburbs. As his once-trusted aides resign in disgrace and the city declares bankruptcy, Bloomberg will insist that he didn't know anything about how the government was being run. Despite the apparent absurdity of the claim, most people will believe him. 
To be fair, Bloomberg could emulate the qualities of a truly admirable CEO. In so doing, he could inspire the city's workers to greater productivity by treating them humanely and paying them decent wages. Dealing with government institutions would actually become a pleasant experience. This approach, however, would subject the mayor-CEO to merciless attacks by the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal and the city's Murdochian media outlets. 
And, to be honest, most New Yorkers probably wouldn't want such a milquetoast mayor-CEO. What they really want is a Microsoft mayor-CEO. They want a mayor who will make New York the most powerful player in the city sector. They want a city that is feared by other, obviously inferior municipalities. Newark wants the Yankees? Newark is toast. And let that be a lesson to you, Hoboken. American Express isn't leaving home. Period. 
So what if city services regularly crash for no reason? Who cares if buses made in other cities won't run on New York streets? Eventually, everyone will adapt and inter-municipal commerce will be much more efficient when every city is New York. 
Now that's a mentality with which New Yorkers are comfortable. 
www.TheDeal.com

Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 	


News; Domestic
Top Story: Interview With Monica Crowley and Ellis Henican
Bill O'Reilly

01/02/2002
Fox News: The O'Reilly Factor
(c) Copyright Federal Document Clearing House. All Rights Reserved.
-- Excerpts Only --
BILL REILLY, HOST: I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight, and a very happy New Year to you on this first edition of THE FACTOR 2002. 
There are certain things the government must get accomplished this year, and that is the subject of this evening's Talking Points memo.
Number one, the death of bin Laden. That's obvious. 
Number two, the capture and trial in front of a military tribunal of Mullah Omar. He should be charged with crimes against humanity. 
Number three, fuel conservation. OPEC has once again cut production in the face of a worldwide recession and a war on terror. These nations are not our friends. The Bush administration should embark in a serious conservation campaign using tax credits for those who save fuel and higher taxes for those who waste it. 
We have to stop fooling around here. Alternative fuels must be aggressively pursued. 
Number four, the minimum wage should be raised $1 to $6.15 an hour. 
Number five, zero percent interest loans should be made available to workers whose unemployment insurance runs out. 
Number six, the capital gains tax should be cut by 20 percent to stimulate investment in the nation's corporations. 
Number seven, tax credits should be given to corporations who hire workers and invest in their own infrastructure. Obviously, that would help the economy. 
Number eight, the U.S. military should assist the border patrol in securing the borders. This must happen for all of us to become secure, and for the flow of narcotics to diminish. 
Number nine, President Bush must order John Ashcroft to investigate the Enron situation, where executives walked away with millions while millions of everyday Americans got hosed. This cannot stand. 
And number 10, money and guns must be given to the opponents of Saddam Hussein in order to destabilize that terrorist regime. 
So there's the no spin 202 (ph) agenda for the good of all Americans. No excuses will be accepted. 
That's the memo. 
Now for the "Top Story" tonight, two other points of view on the year ahead. With us now are Fox News analyst Dr. Monica Crowley and Ellis Henican.
..................
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 
O'REILLY: Continuing now with what has to happen in the year 2002, we're talking with Dr. Monica Crowley and Ellis Henican, both Fox News analysts. All right. 
This Enron situation, this is bad, this is bad. And, you know, Americans haven't been paying too much attention to it because of the war on terror and the economy, and I understand that. But you got four weasels here in Enron, four big shots, all of whom, in the space of a year, took out millions, and in one case $30 million, for themselves, all right? 
And then this thing collapses, with the help of all the idiots on the Cavuto show and CNBC and all those iddi (ph), Oh, Enron, Enron, Enron. And then boom, people lose their 401(K)s, and the people in Enron couldn't sell their own stock, they were prohibited from selling it. 
HENICAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 
O'REILLY: So are you telling me that the Justice Department of the United States should not launch a criminal investigation into this? 
HENICAN: Oh, absolutely they should. But let's remember the historical context here. Enron is an organization that got a lot, a lot of support over the years from a group of Texans who are running America right now, and it shouldn't surprise you, Bill O'Reilly, that they were a little slow jumping on your train. 
O'REILLY: Well, but see, you, you're... 
CROWLEY: Well, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... 
O'REILLY: ... you have this conspiratorial thing... 
HENICAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), I'm just saying... 
CROWLEY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 
O'REILLY: ... I'm going to say, I'm going to say, Look, if Ashcroft doesn't do it, then I'm going to be with you. 
HENICAN: Well, we should all do it. 
O'REILLY: But Ashcroft himself is the guy who should be out point on this, right? 
HENICAN: Well, all I'm say... 
O'REILLY: He should be the point man on this, right? 
CROWLEY: And the president... 
HENICAN: ... all I'm saying, see the, see the historical context here, as I join you in your call... 
CROWLEY: Wait a minute, no, Ellis... 
HENICAN: ... that we smash these people. 
CROWLEY: ... you're trying to make this into a political scandal... 
HENICAN: Well, it is a political scandal. 
CROWLEY: ... and not that, no, it is not that. 
HENICAN: Not yet. Not yet, but it's pretty darn close. 
CROWLEY: The president of the United States... 
HENICAN: It's darn close. 
CROWLEY: ... should order his attorney general to launch an investigation into this... 
O'REILLY: Why hasn't he done that? 
CROWLEY: ... there should also be congressional investigations... 
HENICAN: I told you why. 
CROWLEY: ... the collapse of this company was absolutely breathtaking, to go from the world's largest energy supply company, all right, trading at $85 a share, to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, trading at 30 cents a share, within the space of a few months, when all those top executives, all right? 
O'REILLY: That's right, it's outrageous. 
CROWLEY: Walked away with hundreds of millions... 
HENICAN: And you don't think... 
CROWLEY: ... of -- no... 
HENICAN: ... and you don't think Bush and Cheney... 
CROWLEY: ... but, but wait a minute... 
HENICAN: ... have been looking the other way? 
CROWLEY: ... it is -- Ellis, it is... 
(CROSSTALK) 
O'REILLY: No, I don't think they care. 
(CROSSTALK) 
HENICAN: ... don't be naive. Don't be naive. 
O'REILLY: I don't think they care. I don't think they... 
(CROSSTALK) 
CROWLEY: First of all... 
O'REILLY: ... now they have to care. 
CROWLEY: First of all... 
(CROSSTALK) 
O'REILLY: Now they have to care. 
(CROSSTALK) 
CROWLEY: They're not that stupid to get involved in this kind of situation, first of all. 
HENICAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... 
CROWLEY: Number one. Number two... 
O'REILLY: They might be that stupid... 
CROWLEY: ... it is -- it is... 
(CROSSTALK) 
CROWLEY: ... no, I really don't -- after eight years of... 
(CROSSTALK) 
HENICAN: ... Texas (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... 
(CROSSTALK) 
CROWLEY: ... Clinton, Clinton administration... 
O'REILLY: Listen, what if that list that Cheney's hiding -- and there's no question Cheney's hiding the list... 
HENICAN: Indeed. 
O'REILLY: ... of the people that you mentioned before, the energy advisers, he's hiding the list, there's no reason why he can't put that list out. 
CROWLEY: He... 
O'REILLY: What if, at the top of that list, is Ken Lay (ph)? 
CROWLEY: Well, well, and we know... 
O'REILLY: ... which is probably there. 
(CROSSTALK) 
CROWLEY: ... we know that Ken Lay is very close to the president and Dick Cheney, and we know that he was at the White House and engaged in some of these meetings... 
O'REILLY: He's got to be investigated. 
CROWLEY: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for the energy task force. 
O'REILLY: He's got to be investigated. 
CROWLEY: Of course he has to, that's why this order has to come from the president to John Ashcroft. 
HENICAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 
CROWLEY: But it's illogical to suggest... 
(CROSSTALK) 
O'REILLY: ... and you know why Janet Reno wouldn't? 
(CROSSTALK) 
HENICAN: ... yesterday's news... 
(CROSSTALK) 
O'REILLY: Well, wait a minute, hold it, yesterday's news always applies to today's news. 
HENICAN: We're waiting still. 
O'REILLY: You got a corrupt Justice Department. We have a corrupt Justice Department. We've had a corrupt Justice Department for 10 years. Now, just because the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) general change didn't mean the culture of the department changed. It's still corrupt. 
HENICAN: Well, and new guys are in charge, and we're waiting. 
O'REILLY: All right. 
CROWLEY: Yes, but the bulk of the... 
(CROSSTALK) 
O'REILLY: ... fair enough. 
CROWLEY: ... but I think, Ellis, it's illogical to suggest that Enron somehow benefited in any significant way from close ties to the White House... 
O'REILLY: Well, if they don't investigate, then they will. 
(CROSSTALK) 
CROWLEY: ... but, but, but the company would not have gone under if they had been... 
O'REILLY: Well, that's free market... 
(CROSSTALK) 
O'REILLY: What else you got on your list? 
(CROSSTALK) 
HENICAN: ... I know you've been pooh-poohing this one, Bill, but I think it's still important that we do something about the dreadful way that voting goes on in this country... 
O'REILLY: All right. You know what we should do, Ellis? 
HENICAN: ... the federal government... 
O'REILLY: Here's what we should do. 
HENICAN: ... has a -- the people have a right to vote in a fair election. 
O'REILLY: I'm going to put you in charge. No, Ellis wants more, easier, whatever... 
HENICAN: One man, one vote. 
O'REILLY: ... one man vote. 
HENICAN: How about that? 
O'REILLY: I'm going to put you in charge of going to the house and driving these people who can't vote to the polls. 
HENICAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), all I want... 
O'REILLY: I'm putting you in charge of that. 
HENICAN: ... to say... 
O'REILLY: All right. 
HENICAN: ... is that... 
O'REILLY: Come on. 
HENICAN: ... when someone shows up at the polls, we ought to count their vote in a fair way. Why wouldn't you embrace that? That's very, very simple. 
O'REILLY: Because here's why I won't embrace it. 
HENICAN: It's very simple. 
O'REILLY: Because any moron can go in there and vote. And the morons who can't... 
HENICAN: Well... 
O'REILLY: ... I have no sympathy for them at all. 
HENICAN: ... we know that an awful lot of people that you call morons thought they voted, tried to vote, showed up to vote... 
(CROSSTALK) 
HENICAN: ... and they couldn't vote, they couldn't vote. 
(CROSSTALK) 
O'REILLY: They couldn't cut it. They couldn't do it. 
HENICAN: You can't be happy with that. 
O'REILLY: They couldn't punch the chad. So I'm putting you in charge. 
HENICAN: Bill, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) feel good. 
O'REILLY: You can take them to the... 
HENICAN: That makes you feel good. 
CROWLEY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Ellis... 
O'REILLY: ... and you can punch it for them, Ellis. There you go. 
HENICAN: You can't feel good... 
CROWLEY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) smarting... 
HENICAN: ... about that. 
CROWLEY: ... that Al Gore is not sitting in the White House right now. That issue is so... 
HENICAN: I just want the winner to have won. 
CROWLEY: ... over. We're in a war... 
HENICAN: I want the winner to win. 
CROWLEY: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... 
O'REILLY: He's never, he's never... 
HENICAN: Let the winner win. 
O'REILLY: ... going to let it go. 
CROWLEY: I think that the government should actually get serious this year and committed to rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in everal -- every federal agency and institution... 
O'REILLY: Did you set up another federal agency... 
CROWLEY: ... whatever (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- absolutely not... 
O'REILLY: ... to do that? 
CROWLEY: ... why do we need another bureaucracy (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... 
O'REILLY: Who, who should do it, though? 
CROWLEY: The administration should spearhead this... 
O'REILLY: For who? 
CROWLEY: ... and the president of the United States should say, Every taxpayer dollar that comes into a federal agency or institution... 
O'REILLY: Yes. 
CROWLEY: ... should be accounted for. 
O'REILLY: But they... 
CROWLEY: You're out there every day, O'Reilly, railing against... 
O'REILLY: I am, but I'll tell you what... 
CROWLEY: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) lack of respect for the American taxpayer... 
O'REILLY: ... there isn't anybody set up to do that. See, the GAO doesn't do it until there's a scandal, as you know. They don't get called in until it's already out of control... 
CROWLEY: Well, maybe that's (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... 
O'REILLY: -the congressional committees, they're supposed to do it... 
CROWLEY: Forget about Congress, they're (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... 
O'REILLY: ... you've got to create... 
CROWLEY: ... they live on (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... 
(CROSSTALK) 
HENICAN: It's got to come from the outside. 
O'REILLY: Wait a minute. You know what you've got to create... 
HENICAN: It's got to come from the outside. 
O'REILLY: ... is a tax police, and you know who's in charge of the tax police? Giuliani. That's what I'd do. 
HENICAN: Maybe, maybe. 
O'REILLY: Tax police. 
HENICAN: In the end, in the end, though, government responds when outsiders like me and you and Monica make them respond. 
CROWLEY: Well, I'm, I'm... 
HENICAN: They're not going to do this themselves... 
CROWLEY: ... sick and tired of... 
HENICAN: ... you got to shine and a light on them... 
CROWLEY: ... I'm sick and tired of... 
O'REILLY: Oh, I (UNINTELLIGIBLE) disagree with that. 
CROWLEY: ... of, having 60 percent of my paycheck go to federal, state... 
O'REILLY: Oh, I am too, it's disgusting. 
HENICAN: We all hate taxes. 
CROWLEY: ... municipal, property, sales, gas tax. It is outrageous in this country that we're taxed at the level we are, and there's so much waste, fraud, and abuse... 
HENICAN: Right, absolutely right. 
CROWLEY: ... there are certain things I don't mind... 
(CROSSTALK) 
CROWLEY: ... paying for, the military... 
HENICAN: We all hate taxes. 
O'REILLY: All right, do you have anything else... 
(CROSSTALK) 
HENICAN: ... sure, lots of, lots of things... 
O'REILLY: ... you have anything else, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... 
HENICAN: ... what about these economic embargoes that we know fail, it hasn't worked in Cuba, it hasn't worked in Iraq, it hurts the poor people, and it keeps the despots in power. Let's learn a lesson this year. 
O'REILLY: No embargoes. 
HENICAN: And say, You know what? Let's think of something new. There's a lot of ways to pressure our enemies. These things don't work. 
O'REILLY: All right. 
CROWLEY: Well, I'm for lifting the embargo on Cuba... 
HENICAN: Didn't work. 
CROWLEY: ... but I'm not for lifting it on Iraq. 
O'REILLY: Well, it doesn't work on Iraq... 
CROWLEY: No, no, no... 
O'REILLY: ... Germany sends them whatever they want anyway. 
(CROSSTALK) 
CROWLEY: ... and we've got this oil for food deal in Iraq, and Saddam Hussein just takes all the money and he's pouring it into weapons of mass destruction programs. So... 
O'REILLY: Yes, I'm not big, I'm not a big embargo guy. 
HENICAN: Doesn't work. Just doesn't work. 
(CROSSTALK) 
O'REILLY: I'm a big assassination guy. 
CROWLEY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... 
O'REILLY: It's the only thing that's much better. You know what I mean? 
CROWLEY: Quicker... 
(CROSSTALK) 
HENICAN: Well, you want to kill this year. I want to save two lives. 
O'REILLY: Oh, you (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... 
HENICAN: ... those of Sandra Day O'Connor and John Paul Stevens. If we lose those moderates on the Supreme Court... 
O'REILLY: Who's we, Ellis, you and your pot-smoking friends? 
HENICAN: Decent American people... 
O'REILLY: All right, yes, OK, wait... 
HENICAN: ... decent American people. If we lose... 
O'REILLY: ... look... 
HENICAN: ... those people, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... 
O'REILLY: ... we don't want to see anybody die... 
HENICAN: ... the Supreme Court becomes hard right... 
O'REILLY: ... particularly Supreme Court justices. 
CROWLEY: No, but we do... 
(CROSSTALK) 
O'REILLY: Who ruled correctly, by the way, in the Bush-Gore... 
(CROSSTALK) 
HENICAN: Maybe so, but I want to give them, I want to give them protein powder, gym memberships, and some kind of memory-enhancing drugs... 
O'REILLY: Paid for by us, right, Ellis? 
(CROSSTALK) 
HENICAN: ... I'll cover the gym membership. 
O'REILLY: All right, thank you very much, both, for coming in here and mixing it up in... 
CROWLEY: Thank you. 
O'REILLY: ... 2002... 
CROWLEY: Happy New Year. 
O'REILLY: ... that's what has to happen. 
Enron, if you're listening, attorney general, I'm not letting you go on this one. 



Sarah Palmer
Internal Communications Manager
Enron Public Relations
(713) 853-9843