Years Later Bush Still Protecting Enron

[conley]

Court Refuses to Hear Enron Case
January 22, 2008 - 11:13am
By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court dealt a blow Tuesday to Enron investors who sued major investment banks to recover money lost when the Texas energy giant collapsed amid a massive accounting fraud.

By refusing to review the investors' lawsuit, the court took away what may have been their only hope of keeping the case alive.

Enron stockholders may seek to revive their case in the lower federal courts, though the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has ruled against them once before.

Enron's demise wiped out thousands of jobs, more than $60 billion in market value and more than $2 billion in pension plans.

Tuesday's turndown for the Enron investors came without comment in a routine Supreme Court list of cases the justices had decided not to hear.

The chances that Enron shareholders can recover some money dimmed a week ago with the Supreme Court's decision against the investors in a separate suit. It alleged that two suppliers doing business with a cable TV company engaged in securities fraud.

The suit against the cable TV suppliers was politically sensitive for the Bush administration because of its potential impact on the Enron case. In the suit against the cable TV suppliers, the administration sided with the business community against investors, despite the recommendation of the Securities and Exchange Commission to side with the investors. It was left to attorneys general from 30 states to support shareholders in the case of the cable TV suppliers.

The justices ruled that the cable company's investors did not have the right to sue because they did not rely on the deceptive acts of the suppliers.

The same principle could apply to the Enron case, where investors relied on Enron's glowing description of its business, but were arguably unaware of any deceptive conduct by the investment banks.

Lawyers for Enron investors say the circumstances in the two cases are not comparable.

In the Enron suit, stockholders are accusing Wall Street investment banks of colluding with the energy company to hide its losses.

To date, Enron plaintiffs have settled for $7.3 billion from several financial institutions including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

Enron stockholders are seeking more than $30 billion from Merrill Lynch & Co., Credit Suisse First Boston and Barclays Bank PLC.

The investment banks, say Enron investors, entered into partnerships and transactions that enabled Enron to take liabilities off its books, recording revenue from the deals when it was actually incurring debt.

Last March, the appeals court in New Orleans reversed a decision by U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon in Houston, who had said shareholders could sue as a class.

The issue of certifying a class is a critical one. Once the courts allow huge numbers of investors to pursue a securities fraud lawsuit, the defendants almost always settle rather than exposing their corporations to potentially catastrophic liability.

The appeals court decision in the Enron case meant that shareholders and investors could not pool their resources to sue as a group. Lawyers for Enron investors estimate the class size at over 1 million shareholders.

Enron Corp., once the nation's seventh-largest company, crumbled into bankruptcy in December 2001. The failure became a symbol of the corporate scandals that rocked Wall Street early this decade.

The Enron case is University of California Regents v. Merrill Lynch, 06-1341.

[conley]

The best supreme court money can buy! no wonder the stock market is in the crapper...once again investors left fucked and big business/campaign contributors go scott free

[they call me MR. GRUMPY god damn it!]

The best supreme court money can buy! no wonder the stock market is in the crapper...once again investors left fucked and big business/campaign contributors go scott free

all courts, including the supreme court is charged with ruling on the basis of law not your hurt feelings.  had kennedy, breyer, ginsburg, stevens and souter desired they could have heard this case.  for whatever the reason even your liberal brethren rejected it?

[conley]

the enron case is about as obvious a case of business greed killing 'little people' as there is in all of america

i am not surprised by the scotus refusing to hear the case as washington has long since stopped worrying about the 'little people'

i put it out there as news and you are free to decide for yourself. if you think lay and skilling were justified and that the investment banks that flat out lied were not responsible for the disaster that followed you are in your right.

arthur andersen (the company )was destroyed as a result of their lies and while they werent the only guilty party, the did take the vast majority of the punishment

anyhow i just thought it interesting that the fight is not yet over (or was not, until this latest decision). it is no surprise the administration sided with enron as lay was i believe the greatest individual contributor to w's campaign. living in america!

[they call me MR. GRUMPY god damn it!]

obviously from a legal standard the case is not as obvious as you think.  i have no knowledge regarding body of  law attached.  do you?

[conley]

obviously from a legal standard the case is not as obvious as you think.  i have no knowledge regarding body of  law attached.  do you?

none, none at all

i dont even know anyhting about the constitution so you have me  beat there too

obviously the securities and exchange commission had an opinion, and the bush administration decided to ignore it

[AC]

Protofascists will do their duty, or be cast out.

[conley]

you know what else i find really interesting about enron

ac back me up on this, you guys are active in the california republican party right? what is your opinion of the following?

before enron and the rolling blackouts grey davis was definitely considered a potential 2004 democratic presidential candidate and a strong one

w knew this and let california get completely raped by enron effectively destroying any hope davis had to win the democratic nomination
in fact w and enron destroyed davis' entire political career thanks to the rolling the blackouts...and in comes the republican appointed governator

it is amazing how everything fell into place for w

really have to hand it to his people like rove who engineered this whole thing. its almost like they had a deal with the devil.

[AC]

Rove should accompany Cheney and Rumsfeld to the Hague.

[they call me MR. GRUMPY god damn it!]

obviously from a legal standard the case is not as obvious as you think.  i have no knowledge regarding body of  law attached.  do you?

none, none at all

i dont even know anyhting about the constitution so you have me  beat there too

obviously the securities and exchange commission had an opinion, and the bush administration decided to ignore it

as you already noted it was not just the bush admin that chose to ignore the sec...the 5th circuit and scotus rejected their arguments as well!

[AC]

What does that tell you Grumpy, considering the topic?

[they call me MR. GRUMPY god damn it!]

it tells me that as a matter of law the case of the plaintiffs fell short.

[AC]

Justice is done then.

wOOt!

Too bad Lay and Skilling weren't Clinton supporters.

[they call me MR. GRUMPY god damn it!]

Justice is done then.

wOOt!

Too bad Lay and Skilling weren't Clinton supporters.

no unfortunately in this case i'm not sure that justice can be done.  kon lee is right that this is greed and i might add power exercised only for the sake of greed and power.  would like to have seen all contributing parties stripped of all assets imprisoned for 10-15 years only to be released on 5 years felony probation the requirements being that you live and work in a homeless shelter for room, board and marginal stipend.

[AC]

You want Dubya to go to prison?