Last Chance To See 600 sq mi: Hidden
Missed Connections: Gefilte Fish...and "Chain Connections"
H-Town Rock
Rock Talk, Vol. IX
Ex-Enron CEO Jeff Skilling tried to sell one-fifth of his Enron stock days before the Sept. 11 attacks, his broker testified Monday. Though the attemped sale wasn't illegal, it does cast doubt on Skilling's statements to SEC investigators that the reason he tried to sell the stock was because of post-Sept. 11 concerns, not Enron's tottering corporate health.
Glenn Ray, Skilling's broker at Charles Schwab in Denver, was on the stand yesterday in the trial of former Enron execs Skilling and Ken Lay. Ray said Skilling called him Sept. 6, 2001, about three weeks after he resigned as Enron's CEO, and asked him to sell 200,000 shares of Enron stock. Skilling told Ray an Enron attorney would send a letter saying Skilling was no longer an officer of the company, which would clear the way for the sale. Then, on Sept. 17, Skilling called Ray again and told him, "I'm worried about it. I don't like it," referring to the stock market post-Sept. 11. At that time, Skilling said he wanted to sell 500,000 Enron shares. About 109,000 shares were sold before Schwab halted the transaction because the letter from Enron hadn't arrived; Ray then agreed to talk by phone with Rex Rogers, an Enron attorney, about Skilling's status with the company. Ray said Skilling asked him not to mention the sale to Rogers, but he said his wealthy clients often make such requests.
The story about the attempted Sept. 6 stock sale contradicts Skilling's testimony to SEC officials in December 2001, when he told them that "there was no other reason than Sept. 11 that I sold the stock. I was very optimistic until the Sept. 11 thing."
Ray took the witness stand after former Enron Treasurer Ben Glisan Jr. finished his testimony. During cross-examination, defense attorneys tried to undermine Glisan's testimony that Lay and Skilling not only knew about problems at Enron, but helped hide them. In particular, Lay attorney Bruce Collins talked about Glisan's recollection of a conference call in which Lay lied to analysts by telling them there wasn't any need to write down Enron's water business because of a new accounting rule. Collins tried to prove Lay was just repeating what Chief Accounting Officer Richard Causey had told him about the issue; Glisan said he didn't hear Causey's presentation. Collins also tried to show that Glisan didn't talk about Enron's lack of financial stability during an Enron board meeting, but prosecutor Kathryn Ruemmler showed an e-mail saying Glisan would "comment on the very negative response of the debt investors" during the meeting.
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