Enron's Tangled Web

President George W. Bush:

Rewarded Enron's massive campaign support by refusing to intervene when the company's profiteering sparked the energy crisis in California.

Former Enron CEO and Chairman, the late Ken Lay:

A longtime personal friend of George W. Bush, he made the company Bush's biggest campaign contributor and used his resulting influence to shape public policy in Enron's favor.

 

As head of the Bush Administration's Energy Task Force, Vice President Dick Cheney gave top Enron executives major influence over the creation of the nation's energy policy.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, who was    — Bush's White House counsel, worked at Vinson Elkins, the Houston law firm that represented Enron and signed off on Enron's questionable accounting schemes.

Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft had to recuse himself from the Justice Department's Enron investigation after revealing that the company donated $57,499 to his failed 2000 Senate campaign.

Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove was President Bush's chief political advisor and a major Enron stockholder when he met with Ken Lay to discuss Enron's problems with federal regulators.

Secretary of the Army Thomas White, a 10-year Enron executive who was involved in market manipulations and price gouging, sold off $12 million in company stock after Bush appointed him. Public Citizen pushed for his resignation, and he finally resigned in April 2003.

U.S. Senator Phil Gramm of Texas pushed through legislation, shielding Enron from government scrutiny, and later decided not to seek re-election in 2002 when the scandal erupted.

Before joining Enron's board of directors, former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairwoman Wendy Gramm (Senator Gramm's wife) pushed through a measure exempting Enron from federal oversight. She served on Enron's audit committee.

Former Montana Governor Marc Racicot continued as a lobbyist for Bracewell & Patterson getting paid $360,000 by Enron when Bush appointed him as head of the Republican National Committee.

Former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, who served on Enron's advisory council, provided another key source of access for company officials. Zoellick was promoted to Deputy Secretary of State in February 2005.

After Bush appointed Spencer Abraham to be Secretary of Energy, he called Ken Lay to talk about Enron's financial difficulties and their effect on energy markets. As a Senator, Abraham took Enron contributions.

Bush named Patrick H. Wood III to chair the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Wood was Ken Lay's personal choice to replace Curtis Herbert Jr., who was forced out of office by Bush after disagreeing with Lay on regulatory policies.

Ed Gillespie, Bush's 2000 campaign manager, was paid by Enron $75,000/month to lobby Bush on the California energy crisis.

First Don Evans was Bush's chief campaign fundraiser, then Bush appointed Evans as Secretary of Commerce. Evans accepted Lay's campaign contributions and took Lay's October 2001 telephone call.

Former head of the Christian Coalition and GOP strategist Ralph Reed was hired for $10,000 a month by Enron in 1997 at the recommendation of then Bush political advisor Karl Rove, reportedly as a way to keep Reed loyal to Bush but distant enough to not disrupt the campaign's "compassionate conservative" spin.

For more Information, visit Public Citizen: w w w . c i t i z e n . o r g

 

Public Citizen’s Financial Security Strategy

Public Citizen is pressing Congress to restore America's financial security by passing legislation that:

Holds Those Who Aid and Abet in Corporate Crimes Responsible — by allowing investors, unable to recover money from bankrupt companies, to sue the banks, brokerage firms, accountants, lawyers and other accomplices who made these frauds possible.

Helps Investors Recover Their Losses — by requiring executives and board members, guilty of fraud, to return their ill-gotten gains and by reinstating the rights of investors to recover losses, which Congress eliminated in 1995, facilitating the current corporate crime wave.

Tightens the Laws on Executive Perks — by prohibiting corporations from making any loans to executives, like the $70 million loan to Enron CEO and Chairman Ken Lay, which he paid back in worthless Enron stock; by requiring corporations to count stock options as an expense, which will help prevent inflated profit reports; and by broad disclosure of costly perks to top executives — existing and retired, like Jack Welch of GE — and placing limits on golden parachutes for fired executives.

Reforms Pension Laws — by limiting the percentage of a company's stock that can go in its 401(k) pension plan and by allowing employees to move investments in pension plans from company stock to other securities.

Closes Down Offshore Tax Havens — to prevent the secret transfer of assets by U.S. companies to avoid paying U.S. taxes, which costs the American taxpayers about $70 billion annually, and to prohibit the awarding of federal contracts to companies that dodge paying U.S. taxes.

 

Reasserts Control Over Commodities — by restoring the authority of federal regulators and by requiring the disclosure of all energy futures trading and all off-balance-sheet entities, the trick Enron used to hide its losses.

Expands Campaign Finance Reform — by building on Public Citizen's historic victory — passing the McCain-Feingold law and successfully arguing in the Supreme Court to defend it — to establish public funding of elections, which would finally end the "legalized bribery" of public officials by special interests. Since 1998 those special interests have contributed over $100 million to Congressional campaigns! And the Congress has earmarked tens of billions each year for special deals.

 

Public Citizen is pulling out all the stops for the new Congress with our
Clean Up Washington campaign
for meaningful reform to:

• Stop lobbyists from fundraising for politicians and reduce lobbyists' influence.

• Prohibit privately funded travel and ban all gifts.

• Slow the revolving door by preventing former government officials and senior staff from becoming lobbyists or directing others to lobby for two years.

• Create and fund the Office of Public Integrity to assure compliance with ethics rules.

• Remove special interest money out of elections by overhauling the presidential public financing system and by establishing a publicly funded system for Congress.

• Fight for legislative action to cut back Bush secrecy and restore privacy rights.