- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Enron
Corp. whistle-blower Sherron Watkins told lawmakers on Tuesday that former
chairman Kenneth Lay had missed an opportunity last year to turn the
failing
company around.
-
- Watkins, who had been sympathetic to Lay in testimony
earlier this month, told a Senate Commerce Committee panel that she had
been frustrated by Lay's lack of action when she raised accounting problems
with him in August last year.
-
- "I was incredibly frustrated with Mr. Lay's actions,
or lack thereof," said Watkins, an Enron vice president.
-
- "I believe that Enron had a brief window to salvage
itself this past fall and we missed that opportunity because of Mr. Lay's
failure to recognize or accept that the company had manipulated its
financial
statements," she testified.
-
- Enron eventually disclosed losses related to special
off-the-books partnerships and had to restate earnings going back to 1997
before making a record U.S. bankruptcy filing on Dec. 2.
-
- Watkins told a House panel, nearly two weeks ago, that
she believed Lay had been duped by former Enron president Jeffrey Skilling,
former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow and others about the state
of the company.
-
- Skilling, testifying to the Senate panel on Tuesday,
denied ever duping Lay.
-
- A special internal board of inquiry commissioned by Enron
has said the partnerships it examined were used to hide debt, inflate
profits
and enrich certain high-ranking employees.
-
- Once the seventh largest U.S. company, Enron's collapse
is the subject of probes by 10 congressional committees, the U.S. Justice
Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
-
- Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights
reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in
reliance
thereon.
|
