Hi Harry, At 14:33 08/08/02 -0700, you wrote: <<<< Keith, You'll have to help me with this, but what law has been broken by Lay and the others at Enron? >>>>
You answered the question yourself when you wrote further on: <<<< I strongly detest conspiracy laws, but could any of the stars of the performance by caught be "conspiracy to defraud" charges? >>>> Certainly they could. Directors of a publicly quoted company have a fiduciary duty to report to shareholders, creditors and the appropriate authorities (government, stock exchange) when they have reason to believe that their company is not solvent. The basic scam that Enron (and Andersen) used was to hide Enron's debts in the off-balance sheet accounts of subsidiaries, but to bring forward putative earnings of those subsidiaries (for many years into the future) as actual income in the public accounts of the main company. Keith <<<< Keith, You'll have to help me with this, but what law has been broken by Lay and the others at Enron? My thought is that the laws against "insider trading" might have been broken - but those are surely for the professionals on Wall Street - not for corporation executives. Can a corporation be sued for going broke? Certainly, the people who are responsible can be fired but isn't that all? Also, if while things seem to be all right - even very good - if the top people give themselves hefty bonuses, isn't that OK. After all, they are producing hefty dividends for the share-holders. Is there a law against it? As for the shareholders, there is no guarantee that dividends will always be paid. When you invest, you take your chances. "Investors" take their chances and it is anything but rare for companies to fold. As for the 401K people, in the UK, the Liberal Party of which I was a Poo-Bahish holder of offices (long before young upstarts like Keith arrived) we had a policy of "Portable Pensions" which essentially allowed employees to carry their pensions with them from job to job. Now, I realize how important that policy was. Yet, it is a normal practice for firms to create loyalty by contributing to 401K's (and other pension plans) so valued employees won't change jobs. If the firm collapses and the 401K pensioners lose everything, that is terrible - the worst consequence of the crash - but is it a crime? I strongly detest conspiracy laws, but could any of the stars of the performance by caught be "conspiracy to defraud" charges? So, what I want to know is why should Lay (or any others) be handcuffed? What have they done that is criminal? Tell me. Harry >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- Keith Hudson,6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel:01225 312622/444881; Fax:01225 447727; E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
