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COLUMN
SIXTY-EIGHT, FEBRUARY 1, 2002
(Copyright © 2002 Al Aronowitz)
THE BUSHIES AND THEIR ENRON SCANDAL
Subject:
FW: The Enron Bushites
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 22:12:38 -0800
From: "venire" <venire@znet.com>
To:
<venire@znet.com>
Those
who didn't cash in, might been punished already...:)
But,
strangely enough, most must have picked up a nice piece of change.
http://j-marshall.com/talk/jan0201.html#0102021142am
(January
2nd, 2002)
Wondering
how many Bush administration (Senate-confirmed) appointees owned stock in Enron?
Or how much they owned? Or what business relationships they had with the
company? Well, hey, you came to the right place!
Now
it's important to keep in mind that most of these folks listed below just owned
stock in the company, which probably only means they got suckered and cleaned
out by the company brass like a lot of other people.
based on inside information ... well, that would be another matter entirely.
Appointee: Kathleen B. Cooper
Title: Undersec. for
Economic Affairs
Department: Commerce
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,001
Appointee: Thomas C. Dorr
Title: Under Sec. for Rural
Development
Department: USDA
Relationship: (1) Enron
stock $1,001-$15,001 (MG Dorr IFT), (2) Enron stock $1,001-$15,001 (Roth IRA)
Appointee: Emil H. Frankel
Title: Asst. Sec. for
Transportation Policy
Department: Transportation
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,000
Appointee: Eugene Hickok Jr.
Title: Undersecretary
Department: Education
Relationship: (1) Spouse
Katherine Hickok Rev. Trust: Enron stock
Appointee: Allen F. Johnson
Title: Chief Agriculture
Negotiator
Department: US Trade Rep.
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,000
Appointee: John H. Marburger
Title: Director
Department: Office of
Science and Technology
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,000 value, $201-$1,000 dividends
Appointee: Alice H. Martin
Title: US Attorney, Northern
District of Alabama
Department: Justice
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,000
Appointee: Sandra L. Pack
Title: Asst. Secretary
Department: Army
Relationship: Enron stock
less than $1,001 value, $5,001-$15,000 capital gains.
Appointee: Robert Zoellick
Title: US Trade Rep.
Department: USTR
Relationship: Enron stock
$15,001-$50,000, Enron advisory fees $50,000
Appointee: Hansford T. Johnson
Title: Asst. Sec.
Department: Navy
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,000
Appointee: Donald H. Rumsfeld
Title: Secretary
Department: Defense
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,000
Appointee: John E. Robson
Title: Chairman/President
Department: Export Import
Bank
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,000
Appointee: Thomas Scully
Title: Administrator
Department: HCFA
Relationship: Enron stock
$15,001-$50,000
Appointee: Martin J. Silverstein
Title: Ambassador to Uruguay
Department: State
Relationship: Enron stock
$15,001-$50,000
Appointee: William Winkenwerder
Title: Asst. Sec.
Department: Defense
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,000
Appointee: Thomas E. White
Title: Secretary of the Army
Department: Defense
Relationship: Former
Vice-Chairman of Enron Energy Service; Enron
that paid
Contribution Plan Managed by Enron worth $1,000,001-5,000,000 that paid less
than $201 dividends; Enron
Phantom Stock Award worth $5,000,000-25,000,000 that paid less than $201
dividends; Enron Retirement
Account (Enron Stock) worth less than $1,001 that paid less than $201 dividends;
Agreements: Pursuant to
provisions of employment agreement and routine practice of Enron Corp, given
$1,000,000 in severance pay;
The Phantom Stock Award in Enron (approximately 240,000 shares) were accelerated
and paid out when he
left Enron
Appointee: Mark Weinberger
Title: Assistant Secretary
(Tax Policy)
Department: Treasury
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,000 value, $201-1,000 dividends
Appointee: Vicky A. Bailey
Title: Assistant Secretary,
International Affairs & Domestic Policy
Department: State
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,000
Appointee: Alexander Vershbow
Title: Ambassador to Russia
Department: State
Relationship: Enron stock
$50,001-$100,000 value, $201-1,000 dividends
Appointee: Marcelle M. Wahba
Title: Ambassador to the UAE
Department: State
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,000
Appointee: Steven M. Colloton
Title: US Attorney (S.D.
Iowa)
Department: Justice
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,000
Appointee: Richard J. Egan
Title: Ambassador to Ireland
Department: State
Relationship: Enron Partial
Sale
Value: $250,000-500,000
Dividends: $5,001-15,000
Capital Gains:
$100,001-1,000,000
Enron Corporation (SOLD)
Value: Less than $1,001
Dividends: $201-1,000
Egan's spouse: The following is owned through his wife's Lawhill Capital
fund for the year 2000:
Enron Gas & Oil
15,679 US G/L
Enron Corp.
Lost 12,429 US G/L
Appointee: Donald W. Washington
Title: US Attorney (W.D.
Louisiana)
Department: Justice
Relationship: Enron stock
$1,001-$15,000
Appointee: John Prince
Title: Ambassador to
Mauritius, Comoros, Seychelles
Department: State
Relationship: Enron stock
through four direct/indirect sources: (1) less than $1,000; (2) $15,001-$50,000;
(3) $1,001-$15,000; (4) $15,001-$50,000.
Appointee: William Schubert
Title: Administrator,
Maritime Administration
Department: Transportation
Relationship: Project
Consulting Services for Enron, paid over $5,000
Appointee: Bruce Carnes
Title: CFO
Department: US Dept of
Energy
Relationship: Enron Stock
$1,000 - $15,000
Appointee: John S. Wolf
Title: Assistant Secretary
for Nonproliferation
Department: Dept of State
Relationship: Enron Stock
$50,000 - $100,000
Appointee: Linnet Deily
Title: Deputy
Department: Office of the
Trade Representative
Relationship: Enron Stock
$15,000 - $50,000
Appointee: Nils J. Diaz
Title: Commissioner
Department: US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission
Relationship: Enron Stock
$1,000 - $15,000
Appointee: George L. Argyros
Title: Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Spain and
Andorra
Department: State
Relationship: Enron Stock
$100,000 - $250,000; $1,000 - $15,000
Appointee: Charlotte L. Beers (Beadleston - married name)
Title: Under Secretary of
State for Public Diplomacy
Department: State
Relationship: Enron Stock
$100,000 - $250,000
Appointee: Stephen F. Brauer
Title: Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Belgium
Department: State
Relationship: Enron Common
Stock $50,000 - $100,000
Maybe
reporters covering the relevant departments should ask some questions.
--
Josh Marshall ##
* * *
IS THE ENRON JUDGE IN CONFLICT OF INTEREST?
Subject:
ENRON JUDGE
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 00:31:19 -0500
From: "vanna" <malicia@ntrnet.net>
To: Interested@ntrnet.net , Parties@ntrnet.net
-------
Forwarded message follows -------
-----
Original Message -----
From:
Brenda Pitts Bennett
To: Brenda Pitts Bennett
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 3:14 PM
Subject: Enron Judge's MAJOR COnflicts of Interest
1)
Judge Lee Rosenthal (again, the judge hearing the case filed against
Enron by angry shareholders and employees) says she has the right to freeze the
fudns of Enron executives, to keep them from hiding their ill-gotten gains, but
needs further evidence first.
2)
Judge Lee Rosenthal has herself held Enron stock until as late as the year
2000. Clearly, her ruling
will impact her own financial future if she has to freeze her own funds!
3)
Judge Lee Rosenthal was appointed to the bench by GWBush
4)
Judge Lee Rosenthal, until her appointment to the bench by GWBush,
practiced in a law firm, Baker & Botts.
The "Baker" in Baker & Botts is none other than James
Baker!
That's
right, the same James Baker whose financial records may be frozen, the same
James Baker who may receive a subpoena for records on Friday from Congress for
his role in Enron. The same James Baker who was on the Enron payroll and who
used his political clout for Enron's benefit.
The same James Baker who was hired by Enron at the end of Bush Sr.'s
administration. The same James Baker that masterminded GWBush's post-election
vote-count operations in Florida. The
same James Baker whose wife, Susan, has been on the board of bush-supporter
James Dobson's Focus on the Family.
...Is
this how the Enron court cases are going to go? Are the financially ruined Enron employees and stockholders
going to be further assaulted again by Bush/Enron-toadying judges?
http://www.newsday.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-enron0109jan09.story
Judge:
Enron Funds Could Be Frozen
By
KRISTEN HAYS
Associated
Press Writer
January
9, 2002, 6:25 PM EST
HOUSTON
-- A federal judge says she has the authority to freeze proceeds of more than $1
billion allegedly gained by top Enron Corp. officials who sold millions of
shares before the energy giant collapsed.
But
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal in Houston also said in a ruling issued
Wednesday that lawyers for Amalgamated Bank and other plaintiffs need to present
a stronger argument to convince her to freeze those proceeds.... (end of
quote)....
==============
http://www5.law.com/lawcom/displayid.cfm'statename=TX&docnum=103868&table=ne
Federal
Judges' Financial Revelations
By
Mary Alice Robbins
Texas
Lawyer
The
federal judge hearing the suit brought by angry shareholders of Enron Corp.
against top executives and directors of the former energy giant previously owned
stock in the corporation, according to her 2000 financial disclosure report.
================
PRESS
RELEASE (for release Tuesday, May 29, 2000)
(quote:)
"...Judge
Lee Hyman Rosenthal
Lee
H. Rosenthal is a United States District Judge for the Southern District of
Texas. Judge Rosenthal received her undergraduate degree from the University of
Chicago (1974) and her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School (1977).
After law school she clerked for the Honorable John R. Brown, Chief Judge, U.S.
Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. Judge Rosenthal practiced in Houston with Baker
& Botts until her appointment to the federal bench by President Bush. She is
a member of the federal Advisory Committee on Civil Rules and serves as chair of
its Class Actions Subcommittee. Judge Rosenthal is also a member of the Board of
Directors for the Manual For Complex Litigation.
===================
http://www.sddt.com/features/convention/bios/jab.html
(begin
quote)
"...
James A. Baker, III has served in senior government ... a senior partner in the
law firm of Baker & Botts, senior counselor to The Carlyle Group, and ...
==================
Sharing
by: Brenda Pitts Bennett
Texas
bpb123@earthlink.net
www.geocities.com/copbrutality ##
* * *
MORE ABOUT THE CARLYLE GROUP
Subject:
Carlyle Group: 'Big Guns Defense'
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 15:12:54 -0500
From: portsideMod@netscape.net
Reply-To: portside@yahoogroups.com
To: portside@yahoogroups.com
Los
Angeles Times
January 10, 2001
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-011002carlyle.story
Arms
Buildup Enriches Firm Staffed by Big Guns
Defense: Ex-president and other elites are behind weapon-boosting Carlyle Group.
By
MARK FINEMAN
Times Staff Writer
January
10 2002
WASHINGTON
-- Even by Washington standards, the Carlyle Group has some serious clout.
President
George W. Bush's father works for Carlyle; so does former Defense Secretary
Frank C. Carlucci, whose close friend Donald H. Rumsfeld now runs the
And
even by Wall Street standards, the Carlyle Group has some serious money: $12.5
billion in investments at last count. The Washington-based private equity
So
when President Bush declared war on terrorism in September, few were better
poised than Carlyle to know how and when to make money.
On
a single day last month, Carlyle earned $237 million selling shares in United
Defense Industries, the Army's fifth-largest contractor. The stock offering was
well timed: Carlyle officials say they decided to take the company public only
after the Sept. 11 attacks. The stock sale cashed in on increased congressional
support for hefty defense spending, including one of United Defense's
cornerstone weapon programs.
Carlyle's
windfall is a result of astute business decisions, excellent connections,
strategic lobbying, good timing and a bit of luck. It is also a prime example of
how defense contractors got well in a hurry after the Sept. 11 attacks, in a
year when the Bush administration already was planning steep hikes in defense
spending.
For
several years in the late 1990s, United Defense's Crusader Advanced Field
But
the suicide attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center freed up tens of
billions of dollars in new defense spending. United Defense already had modified
the Crusader, making it 20 tons lighter. And the Army had cut its order by more
than half to make it more palatable to budget cutters.
On
Sept. 26, the Army signed a $665-million modified contract with United Defense
through April 2003 to complete the Crusader's development phase. In October, the
company listed the Crusader, and the attacks themselves, as selling points for
its stock offering.
Then
Congress fully funded the system in the defense authorization bill that passed
the House and Senate on Dec. 13, the day before Carlyle's stock sale. And
President Bush is scheduled to open the funding spigot today, when he signs a
defense appropriation bill that includes $487.3 million for the Crusader in
The
ties that bind the president's family and close advisors to Carlyle have helped
draw the confidence of its investors--and the criticism of outsiders.
"It's
the first time the president of the United States' father is on the payroll of
one of the largest U.S. defense contractors," said Charles Lewis, director
of the Center for Public Policy and one of Carlyle's most ardent critics.
"Between
Baker and Carlucci, not to mention dear old dad, the relationship of
Carlyle
officials bristle at such talk. They described their recent stock sale as just
plain good business that benefited a wide array of investors, including pension
funds like those of California's state employees.
Carlyle
spokesman Chris Ullman said that neither the company nor its managers, directors
and advisors have ever personally lobbied for the Crusader or other government
contracts now in the hands of United Defense and other Carlyle subsidiaries and
investments.
Of
Carlucci, Carlyle's board chairman, and his friendship with the current
But
even if Carlyle and Carlucci don't lobby, their subsidiaries and majority-owned
companies do. And documents on file with the Securities and
Midway
Between White House, Congress
By
any standard, the Carlyle Group has the right address. Its suite of Offices are
on Pennsylvania Avenue midway between the White House and Congress—a 15-minute
walk to each.
It
was founded as a small private-equity firm in 1987 by David M. Rubenstein, a
young lawyer who had worked as an aide in Jimmy Carter's White House, and two
investment specialists. They named the company after their favorite hotel in New
York and started out with a modest portfolio of $100 million.
In
1989, Carlucci retired as Ronald Reagan's Defense secretary and joined Carlyle.
Soon after, the company aggressively went after defense and aerospace
investments, a specialty for Carlucci and the other former government officials
who followed him into Carlyle.
Their
investment strategies paid off, not only in defense acquisitions and sales but
also in a wide array of corporations. Carlyle's portfolio quickly grew into the
billions of dollars as pension funds and wealthy businessmen and families,
including royal sheiks in the Persian Gulf, invested with the firm.
As
its reputation grew, so did the group's star-studded management roster. It added
former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. John M. Shalikashvili; Arthur
Last
February, the California Public Employees' Retirement System announced it was
investing $425 million in "a strategic partnership" with Carlyle. Even
the company owned by Osama bin Laden's estranged billionaire family in Saudi
Arabia was among Carlyle's clients---a mere $2-million investment that Carlyle
said it bought out after Sept. 11 "for image reasons," Ullman said. He
declined to say whether the Bin Ladens made a profit.
Ullman
downplayed Carlyle's defense connections, saying that today less than 10% of its
$12.5-billion portfolio is in defense, an additional 15% percent in commercial
aerospace, and the rest in real estate, health care, telecommunications and
consumer industries
Only
15 of Carlyle's 500 employees are former government officials, Ullman said.
Most
of the rest are investment professionals working in 24 offices scattered across
the globe.
Carlyle
bought Arlington, Va.-based United Defense LP in October of 1997 for $850
million.
At
the time, the company had contracts for the Army's main fleet of armored
infantry vehicles, an automated naval gun system and a Navy missile-launching
system. Among its potentially most lucrative contracts was the one for the next
generation of high-tech Army battlefield artillery.
Still,
the company was losing money. The year after Carlyle bought it, United
Critical
to that turnaround was the future of the Crusader artillery system.
United
Defense had started work on the Crusader in 1994. It is a self-propelled
155-millimeter howitzer that fires ammunition the size of scuba tanks farther,
faster and more accurately than ever imagined, with the killing power of 10
rounds per minute.
The
Crusader reloads automatically from an armored sister vehicle, and it uses
millions of lines of computer code and battlefield intelligence to pinpoint and
strike enemy positions as far as 25 miles away.
The
system was, and is, considered the most advanced and lethal artillery on the
globe.
It's
also the heaviest. At 110 tons, the Crusader was deemed far too heavy for the
rapidly deployable Army that will be needed to fight the sudden and remote
conflicts America will face, according to a Pentagon-appointed National Defense
Panel that sharply criticized the Crusader in December 1997.
That
report fed into what is now the lead edge in post-Cold War Pentagon planning: To
transform the U.S. armed forces into a slim, trim fighting force
And
the Crusader, the panel concluded, was anything but mobile.
"Crusader
was the gleam in somebody's eye in the later years of the Cold War," said
Andrew Krepinevich, executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary
Assessments in Washington and a member of the 1997 Defense Panel.
But
Krepinevich, who has testified against the Crusader on Capitol Hill in the years
since that report, added: "For something so heavy and hard to move as
Here's
how:
About
the time the Carlyle Group bought United Defense, the United Defense LP
In
many cases, the legislators who received the money have other interests in
pushing United Defense's agenda: jobs and commerce in their home states or
districts.
Oklahoma
Republican Rep. J.C. Watts Jr., for example, has been one of the Crusader's
staunchest supporters. Watts' district includes the Crusader's Comanche County
assembly and testing facility. Watts also has received $7,000 in contributions
from the United Defense PAC.
Sen.
Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has received $10,000 from the same PAC. Pennsylvania
And
Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, a GOP member of the House Appropriations Committee, was
among the Crusader's pioneering proponents, dating back to the system's early
development at the Picatinny Arsenal in Frelinghuysen's New Jersey district. The
company's PAC has contributed $4,500 to his campaigns.
Such
contributions are business as usual in the industry; larger defense contractors
lavish even greater sums on their congressional supporters, FEC records show.
Carlyle denies it played any role in creating United Defense's PAC.
United
Defense spokesman Doug Coffey said the contributions are "not anything that
would be out of the norm." The PAC's creation, he said, was timed not to
the Crusader project but to the fact that United Defense became an independent
corporation allowed to make such contributions only after Carlyle bought it.
"The
contributions are primarily made to congressional members in areas where we have
facilities," Coffey said. "And the total amount is nothing very
extraordinary in the defense industry."
In
addition to making its case on Capitol Hill, United Defense sought to answer
The
Army also cut its order to 480 from more than 1,100 Crusader systems, reducing
the program's overall cost to a projected $11 billion. And ever since, a
succession of Army chiefs of staff have argued passionately for the program as
an essential, leading-edge tool for its battlefield readiness in the 21st
century.
Some
independent analysts are impressed. John Pike, who runs the defense watchdog
group GlobalSecurity.com, said he believes the Army will need an advanced
artillery system, which he called "the king of battle, the thing that kills
half the enemy."
But
Krepinevich and others remain unconvinced. Given that future conflicts more
likely will resemble Afghanistan than the Gulf War, he said: "over time,
Crusader becomes less and less attractive. . . . Nobody wants to fight the
American military out in the open anyway."
Krepinevich
concluded that the system nonetheless has survived because "there's
"And
there simply isn't the same kind of intensity on Capitol Hill to cancel projects
like Crusader, especially in times of bigger defense budgets."
Carlyle
Officials Seek to Sell United Defense
Carlyle
officials say their strategy is to keep companies for three to five years and
then sell them. Defense industry sources said Carlyle was trying to market
United Defense as early as a year ago but had no takers. Carlyle officials
confirm they were looking for an "exit strategy" from their ownership
of United Defense.
"They
basically didn't have options," said Stuart McCutchan, who edits the
Virginia-based Defense Mergers & Acquisitions newsletter. "What has
happened in the last two or three months has given them an option. The public
becomes the buyer."
And
Carlyle's timing was impeccable.
First
came the Bush administration's proposed 2002 defense budget. The document landed
in Congress in June 2001, and it included an 11% hike in defense spending,
including full funding for the Crusader.
Bolstered
by the good news and the prospects for the company, Carlyle took its first
dividends from United Defense on Aug. 13: $289.7 million.
Twenty-nine
days later, the two hijacked airliners slammed into the World Trade
On
Oct. 22, United Defense filed its stock-offering prospectus with the SEC.
"The
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have generated strong
"We
believe that domestic and international defense spending will grow over the next
several years as a result of an increased focus on national security by the U.S.
government and its allies."
A
month later, Carlyle took $92 million more in dividends out of United Defense.
Then,
on Dec. 13, the Defense Authorization Bill passed both the House and Senate,
with full funding for the Crusader, just one day before United Defense went
public. United Defense's president and chief executive, Thomas Rabaut, even got
invited to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange that day.
Carlyle
Managing Director Allan Holt explained: "The decision to take United
"We
have an obligation to try to achieve the best returns for our investors."
And
they did.
By
the closing bell, Carlyle, which still controls 54% of United Defense, had sold
more than 11 million of its shares in the company for a total of $237 million.
United Defense raised an additional $163 million from the sale of about 9
million new shares.
On
Wednesday, the company's stock, which Carlyle and United Defense opened at
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