MetaFilter posts tagged with Enron

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Where is the paddle? We need the paddle!

WPW — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:25:05 -0800

Email patterns can predict impending doom. "Email logs can provide advance warning of an organisation reaching crisis point. That's the tantalising suggestion to emerge from the pattern of messages exchanged by Enron employees. "After US energy giant Enron collapsed in December 2001, federal investigators obtained records of emails sent by around 150 senior staff during the company's final 18 months. The logs, which record 517,000 emails sent to around 15,000 employees, provide a rare insight into how communication within an organisation changes during stressful times." From the New Scientist.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Fuzzy Skinner — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 07:57:31 -0800

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room It's been a few years since this documentary came out, and if you haven't seen it yet, you must. Just click and watch. The film is artistically made, enlightening, and ultimately infuriating. It takes on greater resonance in light of the current economic climate. (Too many previous posts to list.)

The Trouble with Enron

Gyan — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 09:19:27 -0800

Open Secrets - the trouble with Enron

It Was All Just a Bad Dream

Falconetti — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:54:58 -0800

Today we learn that Enron's outside law firm, Vinson & Elkins, has escaped unscathed. The Enron debacle sucked in many people, but the lawyers have so far not been held liable. But many have asked: what about the lawyers [pdf]?

The Enron Explorer

tpl1212 — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 05:45:29 -0800

The Enron Explorer from Trampoline Systems "lets you investigate the actions and reactions of Enron's senior management team as the noose began to tighten" (through some 200,000 public domain corporate emails) using Trampoline's SONAR social network mapping platform. (via FutureFeeder)

Lay me down to sleep

The Jesse Helms — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 07:23:06 -0800

Ken Lay is dead.

Oh my god! They convicted Kenny!

XQUZYPHYR — Thu, 25 May 2006 09:14:40 -0800

Ken Lay guilty on all counts. A jury has found Enron founder Ken Lay guilty on all six counts against him of fraud and conspiracy, with a combined possible penalty of 45 years in prison. Enron CEO Jeff Skilling was found guilty on 19 of 28 counts for conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud.

Search through Enron emails! Win an Ipod Shuffle

jasper411 — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 14:15:00 -0800

Find offensive content! The people at Inboxer allow you register for a free account to use their antispam software on approximately 500,000 Enron emails in a database. According to a Wired article, the appliance has found 71,268 inappropriate messages.

And just to add to the fun, they're offering to give away 3 Ipod Shuffles for people who submit the best emails in the "I'd fire him/her" the "Funniest Joke", and the "What were they thinking?" categories. Just to give you an idea of what we're talking about here, check out this lovely Booty Call contract. Also, check out the whitepaper they've written, Monsters in your mailbox (.pdf), and get worried if you're using your business email account for personal messages!

Last of the mustache petes

Smedleyman — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 09:05:26 -0800

Steal little steal big. After nine months on the lam, reputed mob boss Joey "The Clown" Lombardo was captured Friday night in Elmwood Park. He was one of the “guys back home” who took part in skimming $2 million from the Stardust hotel in the movie Casino. He gets the spider hole treatment. (”Moving from place to place is very stressful, as Saddam Hussein will tell you.") While folks who took part in stealing over $42 billion from California alone are photographed in suits and described as “polite.”

Enron and more

elpapacito — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 08:41:24 -0800

Corporate Scandal 2006. The year of Enron. Some articles (and at least one documentary) attempt to outline the size and proportion of the economic, financial and political dimensions of the scandal involving notorious names. As Sam Buell, a former federal prosecutor with the Justice Department's Enron Task Force puts it ""The deepest, most complex, most system-related case would be the last one to be resolved in all of this". Meanwhile Calpine company operating 90 power plants in U.S.A. recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with debts measured in billions of dollars. Among other problems the company wasn't able to predict negative consequences of an increase of natural gas price on at least eight significant contracts. (But hey they're new to this gas market things, it's my first day at work and I signed eight big contracts ! D'oh !). Who routinely gets it up the arse ?

Exploring enron

boo_radley — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 16:32:02 -0800

Exploring enron -- A breathtaking web of conspiratorial email messages. How often did Jeff Skilling email Ken Lay? How often were those emails about company business? Internal alliances? The company's allegiance? The California energy crisis? Who else was talking about it? Who wasn't? Temptingly complete with software download and MySQL tables for your own tinfoil hat explorations.

Here we go again

Mr_Zero — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 10:19:56 -0800

Thomas White may collect 100,000,000's in loans under the new energy bill. Any bets on whether those loans will get paid back or not?

Here be dragons

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 05:15:25 -0800

TERRIFYING DIAGRAMS!

Unspooling the ongoing thread of deceit

almostcool — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 08:33:36 -0800

"DeLay is doing everything moral, legal and ethical to increase the Republican majority and advance conservative ideas," says his spokesman, Stuart Roy. Heck, we already know that Tom DeLay loves the children enough to start a charitable fund to help pay for "late-night convention parties, a luxury suite during President Bush's speech at Madison Square Garden and yacht cruises" during the 2004 GOP convention (as well as the children, of course). Now, he's connected (via an email) to Enron, asking them for extra money in order to help fund the already-notorious redistricting in Texas. When will enough be enough?

Enron shoved what up grandma Millie's....

troutfishing — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 20:50:04 -0800

Enron traders caught, on tape, "talking energy" "They're f------g taking all the money back from you guys?" complains an Enron employee on the tapes. "All the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?" "Yeah, grandma Millie, man" "Yeah, now she wants her f------g money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her a------ for f------g $250 a megawatt hour."

Wacky Enron boys, what will they say next.....

Texas Politics

lychee — Sat, 15 May 2004 00:05:53 -0800

Before Enron Houston, Texas had been the locus of a stock scandal of a slightly different sort. Growing up in Houston in the 80s and 90s, I never associated the word "Sharpstown" with anything but a mall, but the area underwent a development mired in scandal.

In the late 1960s Frank W. Sharp, a Houston businessman, negotiated a deal with a few Texas House Democrats; they would help pass a piece of legislation, and in turn, he would ensure that they would make a profit from his company's stock. In 1971, the dealings came to light. Most of the public officials connected with the scandal were run out of office, but somehow one man beat the resulting karma, even it was a a few decades later. But some good did come out of this, as the Texas Open Records Act was expanded in the aftermath of the scandal.

Jeff Skilling

eperker — Fri, 09 Apr 2004 13:59:04 -0800

Jeff Skilling pulls an Uncle Junior? Sure sounds like guilty behavior to me.

GV is pissed.

skallas — Sat, 15 Nov 2003 16:02:49 -0800

Gore Vidal releases new book about the founding fathers, has some words for the current administration. Vidal: But mostly we find the sort of corruption Franklin predicted. Ours is a totally corrupt society. The presidency is for sale. Whoever raises the most money to buy TV time will probably be the next president. This is corruption on a major scale. Enron was an eye-opener to naive lovers of modern capitalism. Our accounting brotherhood, in its entirety, turned out to be corrupt, on the take. With the government absolutely colluding with them and not giving a damn. Bush’s friend, old Kenny Lay, is still at large and could just as well start some new company tomorrow. If he hasn’t already. No one is punished for squandering the people’s money and their pension funds and for wrecking the economy. So the corruption predicted by Franklin bears its terrible fruit. No one wants to do anything about it. It’s not even a campaign issue. Once you have a business community that is so corrupt in a society whose business is business, then what you have is, indeed, despotism. It is the sort of authoritarian rule that the Bush people have given us.

everything.they.ever.typed@enron.com

me3dia — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 09:01:18 -0800

Browse 1.6 million of Enron's emails for free, courtesy of the Federal Energy Regulation Commission. (Click on the "search iCONECT link in the table on this page, and wait through the slow Java check.) In among the secret dealings and strategic discussions are personal emails about one night stands and evil mother-in-laws.
[via this WSJ article]

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Energy Enron

thedailygrowl — Sat, 04 Oct 2003 01:34:59 -0800

If Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected California can say HASTA LA VISTA BABY to 9 billion according to this article by investigative reporter Greg Palast. According to Palast it turns out that Schwarzenegger knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter with Ken (Enron) Lay and Michael Milken as part of a campaign to sabotage a Davis-Bustamante plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging California pay back the $9 billion in illicit profits they carried off. For memories sake here are a few of the the details behind the California energy scam in this report. Arnold has previously said that he does not remember such a meeting with Ken Lay.

Cheney Stifled Energy Probe, GAO Investigators Say

Blake — Mon, 25 Aug 2003 17:45:33 -0800

Reuters and AP have stories on The final energy report from the GAO on Walker v. Cheney. You can see the Chronology of the GAO's Attempts [PDF] to Obtain Information from the National Energy Policy Development Group, and more at the GAO Site.
The General Accounting Office sued Vice President Cheney last year to obtain a list of officials from Enron and other companies who met with President Bush's energy task force.
Highlights or read the full report: GAO-03-894 "Energy Task Force: Process Used to Develop the National Energy Policy"

How Niagara Mohawk and Enron brought energy deregulation to the US.

skallas — Sat, 16 Aug 2003 01:38:52 -0800

How Niagara Mohawk and Enron brought energy deregulation to the US. Greg Palast explores the links between Mohawk, Enron, Bush I, and George Pataki and how their successful attempts at deregulation has left the US with a weaker grid and more expensive energy.

Gimme that list!

CrazyJub — Thu, 17 Jul 2003 14:57:13 -0800

The other shoe is dropping for the Bush administration. Yes it's old news, but relevant to recent events. Cheney ordered to name members of energy panel. Ken Lay, pack your bags!

Enron Tax Evasion

amanda — Fri, 14 Feb 2003 13:24:15 -0800

Three-Volume report on Enron released today Among the findings: "Enron paid zero federal income taxes from 1996 to 1999, despite reporting $2.3 billion in net income during the period" (from the linked article); executives took "1.4 billion" in compensation packages (SFGate has a piece on that.); and myriad details about the complicated machinations involved to pull this off (Mercury News). I am among the outraged though, frankly, I feel like they were just taking advantage of the system as it is was in place. If the economy hadn't tanked, this stuff might never have come out.

Which one is it?

magullo — Fri, 14 Feb 2003 07:35:47 -0800

The New York Times published on Sunday a very favorable report on Ken Lay. In it, they argue that he was, at least in part, wrongly chastised for his role in the Enron affair. Apparently, we are to believe that the CEO didn't know what was going on inside the company he ran. After news of the report appeared in numerous U.S. media earlier this week, the BBC today counterattacks brutally (although perhaps not intentionally), describing some of the most ruthless Enron practices - like placing the combined total salary of the top 200 executives salary at one and a half times the company's total earnings (Lay's went from 15m to 164 mil in that period). My question is simple: just what is going on here?