& there's a lot of nice clear whitehot hate of the the higher ups, of course also God stuff, "buck-up-and-get-on-with-your-life" and a variety of vultures offering stuff like franchising opportunities.
Still haven't seen any explanation of how the filing's $7 and a half billion of unsecured debt to Citi, MorganChase and BONY keeps getting reported as less than one billion. If they laid it off, who then has the $6 plus billion unsecured now?
The wickedness of the Enron biggies is of a crystal clarity that reminds me of my old landlady. The spokespeople for free markets and deregulation. And Dubya's best friends and biggest contributors. Bill Lerach of Milberg, Weiss just filed *in Houston* on behalf of UNITE's Amalgamated Bank with an attempt to attach their assets pre-judgment (fat chance!). Makes me almost wish I were back in harness...
The best story of the day, not so far as I've seen picked up by the business wires yet (if ever?) follows - keep in mind that total severance for the 4000 plus (that's just in Houston) mentioned in the filing is $18 million.
john mage
Enron Execs Got $55 Million Just
Before Bankruptcy
Neil Weinberg and Lynn Cook, Forbes.com, 12.05.01, 4:36 PM ET
NEW YORK - Enron paid out $55 million in bonuses to executives and
othe employees two days prior to filing for bankruptcy, the company
confirmed today. A total of 500 employees received bonuses.
"In order to protect and maintain the value of the estate, we wanted to
retain key employees in critical businesses," said Mark Palmer, an
Enron (nyse: ENE - news - people) spokesman.
The so-called "stay-on" payments were made Nov. 29 in exchange for
select employees' agreeing to remain at Enron for 90 days. Enron filed
for restructuring Dec. 2 in the biggest bankruptcy filing in history. Enron
has $50 billion in assets and booked $101 billion in sales last year.
Still unclear is the legality of the payments and whether they were
disclosed by Enron in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission or bankruptcy court. The bankruptcy court will likely allow
the payments to stand because they are immaterial in a failure of
Enron's size, says Peter Chapman, editor of Bankruptcy Creditors'
Service, a Trenton, N.J., newsletter. "The $55 million is a drop in the
bucket compared to Enron's annual payroll of $2.3 billion," he said. The
only requirement with stay-on payments is that "the people authorized
to sign the checks signed the checks."
That is likely to be little consolation to Enron employees, who caused
an uproar last month when Chairman Kenneth Lay was set to walk
away with $60 million after selling the troubled firm to Dynegy (nyse:
DYN - news - people), another Houston energy firm. Lay agreed to forgo
the payment. However, the Dynegy deal ultimately collapsed.
Meanwhile, at least 4,000 Enron employees have received pink slips
since the company's bankruptcy filing, reportedly with $4,500 in
severance pay. Many have lost their retirement savings, which Enron's
401(k) had invested heavily in company stock. Former employees and
shareholders have both filed lawsuits against Enron.