All those Enron indictments! - thank god we're doing a thorough investigation!

The BBQ Pit
1

(It’s late and I shouldn’t, but I feel this insane urge to use caps and rant. I beg your indulgance.)

Today is 7/17/2002.

Enron imploded sometime about 11/2001, due to insanely unethical insider accounting fraud. The Justice Department is investigating.

So: WHY (TF!), after EIGHT MONTHS, hasn’t A SINGLE Enron employee been indicted? And IIRC we’ve had no indication that this will EVER happen, right???

OK, so they nuked Arthur Andersen. Big whoop-de-doo. The cookie thieves get away while the dumbass night watch on the cookie jar takes the fall. Nice job, Feds. Bah.

So when will someone who actually worked at Enron be brought up on charges? Swindling a zillion stockholders, not to mention bilking all the employee’s out of thier retirement, IS ILLEGAL, is it not? WHAT THE FUCK IS TAKING SO LONG FOR INDICTMENTS TO HAPPEN?!

I want “the Enron Five” or whoever in custody in orange jumpsuits. I want a “perp walk” of executives, in chains, before the cameras. I want some stock options taken fucking back. Goddammit!

And then let’s start on WorldCom. And friends.

But seven+ months later, nothing. Zip. Zilch.

Are these bastards going to walk? Is AA considered a sacrificial lamb over at JD, and no more will be done beyond convicting the accounting firm that certified the fraud by employees at Enron? Why is no one at Enron being held responsible??

One might be tempted to wonder if the Justice Department is making an unbiased and credible investigation. Comment, Mr. Ashcroft?

Thanks. I’m feeling much better. Dammit.
If this has been covered in another thread, apologies.

2

No blowjob, no investigation.

3

Unethical Fraud ?

Can you point to the section of the Criminal Code which covers this interesting offence ?

BTW, I think you’ll find the biggest problem for the markets, investors, etc is that what they did probably wasn’t illegal (in the US). I stand ready to be corrected.

4

I like the executives at Worldcom that are blaming the accountants.

Worldcom’s argument seems to be “Well, it’s the accountant’s fault because they didn’t catch us.”

Some pro-business senator is going to buy this argument, too.

5

I wouldn’t say that A. Anderson’s role in this took on the aspects of a “dumbass night watch on the cookie jar takes the fall.” Given that they are the auditor to so many of these companies, one can reasonably conclude that their complicity is likely a little beyond not catching the theives.

6

I would agree that Anderson needs to take a hit on this. At minimum, they were grossly imcompetent. I think it more likely they were participants.

I’m just hoping this attempt by Worldcom to say “look over there - there’s your criminal” is seen for the misdirection it is and somebody over there gets some time behind bars.

Lying about the earnings to create artificial value is simple theft. Maybe fraud. Maybe both. IANALawyer (obviously).

7

I assume AA wasn’t convicted for improper parking, so there indeed must have been something illegal and convictable happening.

If it’s illegal for AA to sign off on a bogus audit, how can it not be illegal to provide fraudulent information to one’s auditor?

Can Enron, WorldCom, Harken, et. al. stand in the corner, sobbing and looking pathetic, and successfully point at AA, whining, “They made me do it!” ???

8

AA was convicted for document destruction.

It is illegal to provide misleading information to auditors (in the UK at least) and it is the directors’ duty to maintain complete and accurate records.

It is not illegal, as far as I am aware, to sign a ‘bogus audit’.

9

I would suspect that the Justice Department is trying its hardest to dot all their t’s and cross all their i’s before handing down indictments. They want criminal indictments, which are very hard to prove (at least according to the attorney on CNN this morning). They’ll be facing some of the best liers…lawyers, excuse me (sorry SDMB attorneys, but I’m weak and can’t avoid cheap shots), in the business.

Careers may be made or lost depending on whether they can fit Ken Lay with an orange jumpsuit, and I’m hoping they take their time to slam dunk his thieving ass into said jumpsuit.

[p.s. - I recently finished a support engagement for a financial litigation case that happened several years ago; I think they only recently went to trial. These things take time to sort through.]

10

Actually, D_Odds brings up a very relevant point: it can take a hell of a long time to investigate these cases and to collect sufficient evidence. I have worked on a corporate fraud case for a company that went bust in 1991 or 1992. We were still trying to trace where the assets went and who was involved in 2002.

11

Don’t forget that Ashcroft recused himself from the Enron investigation because they were a campaign contributor to his failed re-election bid against the dead guy. So the top man at Justice is out of the picture, which is a good thing since he can now focus on catching the anthrax mailer. And he’s doing a very good job of it, too. And hey, don’t forget those 12 hookers he found in New Orleans!

12

. . . and covering up nekkid statues, too.

I am beginning to wonder if DOJ is just going to say that Enron wasn’t run by incompetent crooks, just incompetent fools.