LIEBERMAN, LEVIN TO PROBE
ENRON COLLAPSE
HEARINGS PLANNED, PSI INVESTIGATION
UNDERWAY
January 2, 2002
WASHINGTON - Governmental Affairs Committee
Chairman Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations (PSI) Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said
Wednesday an examination into the sudden implosion of the
Enron Corporation would be a Committee priority in 2002.
Lieberman announced the full Committee would
hold hearings January 24 into whether government agencies
could have done more to protect the thousands of people and
businesses hurt by the largest bankruptcy in American history.
Senator Levin said he will subpoena
documents from the Board of Directors of Enron, as well as top
company officials, as part of PSI’s investigation into how
Enron was governed and audited, and how it used offshore
entities to conduct its business. PSI hearings are anticipated
later in the year.
"The untimely and wholly unexpected
failure of a corporate giant like Enron is an alarm call to
all of us in government to make sure that we are doing all we
can to protect the integrity of our markets and the savings
and investments of the American people," Lieberman said.
"Today, 60 percent of the citizens of this country own
stocks. The interest of those hardworking people in their
investments and retirement plans is at the heart of the
committee’s interest in Enron."
"The collapse
of Enron has enormous consequences for Enron stockholders and
employees, the overall investing community, and the U.S.
economy as a whole," Levin said. "Thorough
investigations are needed – and from different perspectives
– to determine whether current law was violated and where
current law is inadequate to protect the public interest. Our
role in Congress is to understand what went wrong and why so
we can make sure this does not happen again."
Lieberman said the full committee will call
experts on investing and regulation of the financial markets,
energy and derivatives trading, and pensions and retirement
savings to speak to the flaws in the system that allowed so
many people to be victimized by Enron’s collapse. In the
weeks and months that follow, Lieberman said, the committee
will look at each of those problems in greater detail to see
if cracks need to be filled in the regulatory system -
including at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission, and the Labor Department - that so many
Americans fell through the day that Enron declared bankruptcy.
Levin said PSI will spend the next few
months gathering and analyzing the documentary trail of Enron’s
collapse, with particular attention to the role
of the Board of Directors in overseeing Enron activities; the
role of the auditor, Arthur Andersen; and Enron’s use of
related entities, limited partnerships and special purpose
entities.
"The questions that need to be asked
and answered about what happened to Enron are of great public
- not partisan - interest," Lieberman said. "That is
the spirit in which we begin our Enron investigation and that
is the spirit in which we intend to conduct it. This is a
search for the truth, not a witch hunt, because the truth will
enable us to take steps to prevent what happened to Enron, its
employees, customers, and investors from happening
again."
Senator
Lieberman's Press Conference Statement |