any different from investment bankers or CEO's urging analysts to maintain upbeat calls on deadbeat companies?
"After lenders agreed to provide additional financing and changes were secured in terms of a proposed acquisition of Enron by Dynegy, Inc. , Moody's officials agreed that night to lower Enron's rating but to keep it above investment grade."
Big of them - by the way, the chairman of Moody's was on WorldCom's board of directors until this January. Moody's didn't downgrade WorldCom until April.
Nomi
January 3, 2003 Senate Report Clears Rubin of Illegality in Enron Matter By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 — A report by the staff of a Senate panel has concluded that Robert E. Rubin "did not act contrary to law" in the weeks before <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=ENRNQ">Enron</A> collapsed by suggesting to the under secretary of the Treasury that he urge major credit-rating agencies to delay issuing a downgrade of Enron.
Mr. Rubin, who resigned as Treasury secretary in July 1999 and several months later became chairman of <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=C">Citigroup's</A> executive committee, called Peter R. Fisher, the under secretary of the Treasury, on Nov. 8, 2001, after learning that Enron was close to losing its investment-grade rating.
Citigroup stood to lose more than $1 billion that it had lent to Enron if its credit rating was downgraded and the company subsequently collapsed. Mr. Rubin had been asked to make the call by the head of Citigroup's investment banking unit at the time, Michael A. Carpenter, according to the staff report by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
After news reports last year detailing Mr. Rubin's phone call, some Republicans in Congress demanded that his actions be investigated, suggesting that his contact with Mr. Fisher was an improper attempt to press his former agency to help Citigroup avoid a huge loss from its exposure to Enron.
The staff report, expected to be released on Friday, says that "it does not appear that Rubin violated any laws or regulations in contacting Fisher and proposing that the Treasury Department contact a credit rating agency in connection with Enron's rating."
<A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/03/business/03MOOD.html?pagewanted=print&position=top">http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/03/business/03MOOD.html?pagewanted=print& position=top</A>
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