[Peace-discuss] Enron and Gold

[Barry Miller]

This has been interesting to follow...in the shadow of 911.

Citi's Rubin made a call for Enron
To: bamiller at igc.org
Le Metropole Members,
ATTENTION:
The following story has not been carried by Bloomberg News as of yet.

This same Bloomberg News that has refused to mention the word GATA the past 
three years. I had lunch with a very charming Claudia Carpenter, 
Bloomberg's gold reporter, almost 3 years ago. Word was passed on to me has 
been that she is forbidden to talk about GATA. Michael Bloomberg was just 
elected mayor of New York. Take that wherever you want.

As far as I am concerned, say hello to the Free Press in America that has 
brought you Enron and conceals the biggest financial scandal in U.S. 
history - that being THE GOLD SCANDAL!!

Rubin, Fisher, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wall Street - all the same cast of 
characters involved in the rigging of the gold price for SO MANY YEARS.

Yesterday, Treasury Secretary O'Neill said in an interview that Enron was 
another case of the big rich guys taking advantage of "Joe the worker." 
Hey, Irishman O'Neill what do you think the gold scam is all about?

To a man the GATA camp believes the Enron scandal will allow concerned 
indivduals to get their head around the gold scandal- which DWARFS the 
Enron one because of its international scope.

The Enron story is The Gold Cartel fraud in MINIATURE.

Stay tuned. GATA is going to go all out to let the world know what kind of 
devastation The Gold Cartel has unleased on the poor people of the world.

BILL MURPHY
CHAIRMAN
GOLD ANTI-TRUST ACTION COMMITTEE

 From CBS Market Watch:
Citi's Rubin made a call for Enron Ex-Treasury chief sought help to deal 
with credit agencies

WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin called a top 
U.S. Treasury official in November, asking that the government intervene 
with credit agencies that were about to cut Enron's debt ratings, the 
Treasury Department disclosed Friday.
Rubin is now chairman of the executive committee at Citigroup (C: news, 
chart, profile), which is Enron's largest creditor to the tune of $3 
billion, according to court documents in the collapsed energy trader's 
bankruptcy case.

A Treasury spokeswoman, Michele Davis, said in a statement released late 
Friday that Undersecretary Peter Fisher turned down Rubin's request to call 
the ratings agencies on behalf of Enron (ENE: news, chart, profile).  She 
said that on Nov. 8 Rubin asked him "what he thought of the idea of Fisher 
placing a call to rating agencies to encourage them to work with Enron's 
bankers to see if
there is an alternative to an immediate downgrade."

Rubin said he thought that was a reasonable position, according to Davis' 
statement.  Fisher was among several government officials contacted by 
Enron Chief Executive Kenneth Lay in October and November, just before his 
company filed for the largest bankruptcy
in U.S. history. Rubin is a Democrat who served under President Bill Clinton.

Role in bailouts

In the late 1990s, Rubin and Fisher, who was a top Federal Reserve official 
at the time, participated in several high-profile financial rescue efforts, 
including an effort led by the New York Federal Reserve Bank to stabilize 
the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund.

An Enron spokeswoman declined to comment on the Rubin revelation. 
Representatives of Citigroup weren't immediately available for comment.

In the wake of Wednesday's news that the Justice Department opened a 
criminal probe of the Enron matter, U.S. officials have acknowledged that 
Lay also called Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretary Paul 
O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Don Evans.  None of the officials gave Enron 
any assistance in rescheduling its debts or in averting the ratings 
downgrades that led to the bankruptcy filing, they have said.

In televised interviews, O'Neill said Lay didn't seek any bailout money. 
Evans' account, however, is that Lay did
ask for help with the ratings agencies.  A Fed spokesman declined to 
characterize Greenspan's conversation with Lay.
Lay, who has close ties to President Bush and other administration 
officials, was a top fund-raiser in Bush's presidential campaign. He and 
has also contributed to many other Republicans' war chests, including 
Attorney General John Ashcroft, and he gave smaller amounts to some Democrats.

On Thursday, Bush vowed that his relationship with Lay wouldn't interfere 
with a full federal investigation surrounding the largest bankruptcy in 
U.S. history. See full story.

Davis, the Treasury spokeswoman, said undersecretary Fisher had six to 
eight phone conversations with Lay and other Enron officials, including 
President Lawrence "Greg" Whalley in October and November.

Ultimately, Fisher decided nothing should be done for Enron because its 
collapse posed no "spillover" threats to U.S. capital markets, Davis said.

Meanwhile, the congressional probe into Enron deepened as a Senate 
investigatory panel issued 51 subpoenas for documents relating to the 
financial collapse of the company that was once the nation's largest energy 
trader.  The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations issued the 
subpoenas to Enron, its auditor Andersen, and 49 individuals who worked for 
the Houston-based Enron
dating back to January 1999. That list includes current and former members 
of Enron's board and company officers.

Looking into limited partnerships

As for the Senate panel's inquiry, no details on the kinds of documents 
sought were given. The return date on the subpoena is Jan. 31.
Andersen said Thursday that a "significant but undetermined number" of its 
Enron-related documents had been destroyed. See full story.

House investigators asked Andersen on Friday to turn over additional 
records Friday relating to the lost documents.  The Senate committee, 
chaired by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., formally launched its investigation 
into Enron on Jan. 2. It is one of several congressional committees probing 
Enron.

Levin's committee is using its subpoena power in an attempt to uncover 
evidence about the internal dealings of Enron and its use of shadowy 
limited partnerships. It's been alleged that the partnerships were used to 
keep billions of dollars off the company balance sheet. Levin told 
reporters Friday in Detroit he found it "troubling" that Andersen had 
destroyed documents, Dow Jones reported.
He said the committee's investigation wouldn't be affected by the Justice 
Department's newly announced criminal investigation.
The Justice Department is focusing on whether Enron executives committed 
financial fraud or violated insider-trading laws.

On Thursday, Attorney General John Ashcroft and his chief of staff removed 
themselves from any involvement in the investigation. Ashcroft received 
more than $50,000 in campaign contributions from Enron and Lay for his 
unsuccessful Senate re-election bid in 2000.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Labor Department are also 
conducting investigations.

In a related development, Bush said Thursday that the Treasury, Labor and 
Commerce departments are expected to convene a working group to examine 
whether pension laws should be amended to give workers better protection 
during bankruptcies.

Several Enron workers testified on Capitol Hill last month that their 
retirement savings were wiped out because the company blocked them from 
trading Enron stock in their retirement plans as the stock collapsed.

"At first blush, it looked like Enron operated within the rules and 
regulations that existed and still exist today with regards to how it 
manages its 401(k) plans," O'Neill told ABC's "Good Morning America" Friday.

Rex Nutting is Washington bureau chief of CBS.MarketWatch.com.
Matt Andrejczak is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in Washington


<A HREF="http://www.LeMetropoleCafe.com/entrance.cfm"> Le Metropole Cafe</A>
All the best,
Bill Murphy
Le Patron
www.LeMetropoleCafe.com