- WASHINGTON (PTI) - Enron
Power Corporation had become a cash cow for a large number of US Congressmen,
and had extended elaborate favours to former President Bill Clinton in
exchange for his help for the Dabhol project, reports say.
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- Enron gave $100,000 to the Democrats to secure Clinton's
help on the Dabhol project, The Wahington Times reported on Saturday. It
also donated half a million dollars for Clinton's political campaign and
another $100,000 for various inaugural functions, the report added.
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- Besides, Attorney-General Ashcroft who has stepped aside
from criminal investigation of Enron, had received over $58,000 from the
now-bankrupt power company during his campaign seeking re- election to
the Senate in 2000.
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- In addition to this, 15 high-ranking officials in the
Bush Administration, including Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Trade
Representative Robert Zoellick were shareholders in the company, says the
Centre for Public Integrity. Zoellick also seved on Enron's advisory council,
earning dlrs 50,000 a year.
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- This is in addition to over 250 members of Congress who
had received political contributions from Enron between 1989 and 2001.
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- Also, Army Secretary Thomas White was Enron's vice chairman
before he assumed his Pentagon post. He also owned between $50 million
and $100 million worth of stocks.
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- White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey served
as a consultant to Enron when he was managing director of Economic Strategies,
Inc., a consulting firm.
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- Ken Lay, a personal friend of Bush who headed Enron,
tried repeatedly without success to get the administration's backing to
avoid bankruptcy of the company.
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- Former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, The Washington
Post reports, also got into the act on behalf of Enron. Chairman of the
executive committee of Citigroup, one of Enron's main creditors, Rubin
called up Peter Fischer, Treasury Undersecretary, and asked "what
he thought of the idea" of calling bond-rating agencies to help forestall
a crippling reduction in Enron's credit rating. However, fortunately for
Bush, Fischer did not respond
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- The Bush administration is now desperately trying to
distance itself from Enron but Democrats predict that it will become for
Bush what Whitewater turned out to be for Clinton. The Clintons lost money
on the Whitewater investment project. Bush got half a million dollars in
political contributions from Enron.
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- The Post said what crushed Enron were the "partnerships"
it created. They shielded a 600-million-dollar debt.
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- "This fall," said the Post, "the crack
became a fissure that swallowed Enron, forcing the Houston trading company
to acknwoeldge that it had overstated its profits by $400 million in financial
reports it had issued since 1997."
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- http://www.timesofindia.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=1957983425
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