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>From www.wsws.org
WSWS : News & Analysis : North America
The strange and convenient death of J. Clifford Baxter �Enron
executive found shot to death
By Patrick Martin
28 January 2002
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Without anything that can be called a serious investigation, local
authorities in a wealthy Houston suburb have whitewashed the death of
former Enron vice chairman J. Clifford Baxter, calling it a suicide.
Baxter, 43, was found shot to death in his Mercedes Benz in the early
hours of Friday morning, January 25, near his home in Sugar Land.
Baxter�s body was discovered inside his Mercedes Benz, which was
parked in a turnaround on a street near his home. Officials in Sugar
Land moved swiftly to label Baxter�s death a suicide. Local Justice
of the Peace Jim Ri
chard initially declared that Baxter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and no
further inquiry was required. But within hours he reversed himself, citing the intense
public interest in the death, and ordered an autops
y.
Harris County Medical Examiner Joye Carter conducted the autopsy and found the cause
of death to be suicide by a �penetrating gunshot to the head.� The weapon was a .38
caliber revolver which was found in Baxter�s car, ne
xt to his body.
Neither the perfunctory official probe nor the media coverage has addressed the
obvious suspicions aroused by the death of a critically important witness in the
investigation into the criminal activities at Enron, the big
gest corporate fraud in American history. Baxter quit as vice chairman of the company
last May, after reportedly come into conflict with other top executives over the phony
accounting gimmicks used to plunder billions of
dollars.
The most disturbing account of Baxter�s last days comes from a former business
associate who spoke to the New York Times but was not identified by the newspaper.
This person spoke with the former Enron vice chairman two d
ays before his death and congratulated him �for being named among those people who
complained about Enron.�
According to the Times account, the unnamed associate added that Baxter �was talking
about perhaps needing a bodyguard, though I�m not sure where that idea came from.�
That a man only two days away from suicide would be considering hiring a bodyguard
defies belief. But neither the Times nor any other media outlet has raised the
possibility that Baxter felt his life to be in danger becau
se of what he knew and could divulge about the internal affairs of Enron. Men have
been killed for much less.
Baxter was named in a memorandum submitted by Enron Vice President Sheron Watkins last
August to Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay. Watkins warned Lay that dubious off-the-books
transactions with private partnerships set up by
top Enron officials might cause the company to �collapse in a welter of accounting
scandals.� She cited Baxter�s opposition to one of these partnerships, set up by
then-CEO Jeffrey Skilling, writing, �Cliff Baxter compla
ined mightily to Skilling and all who would listen about the inappropriateness of our
transactions with LJM.�
Baxter received a subpoena from the Senate Government Affairs Subcommittee on
Permanent Oversight and Investigation, along with 48 other people linked to Enron and
Andersen. Investigators from the House Energy and Commerc
e Committee had told Baxter�s lawyer that they wished to interview him, but had not
yet issued a subpoena.
Representative James C. Greenwood, Republican of Pennsylvania and chairman of the
committee�s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, said, �It seemed to us that he
was a pretty highly placed insider at Enron who had u
nderstood exactly what was wrong there.�
Both Enron and its accountant and business adviser, Andersen, have been engaged in
massive, illegal shredding of documents and deletion of computer files. Billions of
dollars are at stake in the collapse. The highest leve
ls of the Bush administration are implicated in the corruption of the financial and
political system that Enron exemplified.
Under such conditions, the sudden death of a crucial witness inevitably raises the
suspicion that it is not just pieces of paper and computer data that are being
destroyed to protect the corporate and political gangsters
at the top, but human lives as well.
Given the organized shredding operation, a systematic effort to destroy incriminating
documents, Baxter�s evidence would be all the more critical, since he could testify,
from the perspective of the highest levels of the
company, what information Enron and Andersen were so afraid of. How can one not assume
that Baxter, too, was �shredded� to prevent him from taking the witness stand?
A potential whistle-blower dies less than two weeks after his name first comes to
public attention. What message does that send to others who might be considering
testifying against Enron? And on top of that, the local po
lice immediately declare his death a suicide. If there was foul play, those
responsible have carried it out with impunity.
It is, of course, possible that Baxter actually took his own life. But no confidence
can be placed in such a finding without a thorough investigation, and no such
investigation can be expected from the local authorities i
n Houston, a metropolitan area where Enron was by far the most influential corporate
power. (As one indication of its dominance, all the federal prosecutors in the US
Attorney�s office in Houston have had to recuse themse
lves from the Enron investigation because of financial or family ties to Enron.)
The circumstances of Baxter�s life cast doubt on the verdict of suicide. He is not
known to have been suffering from depression or any other mental health problem. He
was a multimillionaire, having netted $30 million from
the sale of his stock in the company before and after his departure from Enron last
May. His family life was apparently happy, and he leaves a wife and two children, a
16-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter.
Far from being the target of media vilification, Baxter�s name had been linked to the
Enron affair in a way that was largely favorable. His first appearance in the coverage
of Enron came when the Watkins memo was made pub
lic, presenting him as an opponent of corporate fraud.
Friends and business associates interviewed by the press expressed shock and surprise
at his reported suicide, although there were conflicting accounts of his state of mind
after the bankruptcy of Enron.
An executive of Portland Gas & Electric, a subsidiary which Enron acquired in a
takeover organized by Baxter, told the New York Times: �My impression of Cliff Baxter
was that this was an enormously confident guy who came
up here to get the thing done, and he did. The image I had of him at the time is
totally at odds with the tragedy today. I mean, he was self assured, he was very
friendly. This was practically the last person in the world
you�d ever expect to commit suicide.�
Copyright 1998-2001
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
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