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US Congress demands records, briefing from Enron

A congressional committee demanded on Tuesday that Enron Corp. hand over financial records and meet with committee staff within 10 days, intensifying a push on Capitol Hill to shed more light on the stunning collapse of the former energy trading powerhouse.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee called on Enron to turn over documents relevant to the committee's investigation into the company's collapse, said committee Chairman Rep. Billy Tauzin and Rep. James Greenwood, who chairs a subcommittee, in a statement.

In letters sent this week to Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay, and Andrew Fastow, the company's former chief financial officer, Tauzin and Greenwood also requested staff interviews with both current and former senior Enron employees as well as members of Enron's audit and compliance committee by Dec. 21.

Fastow was ousted as CFO in late October in the early days of a dizzying downward spiral of events that saw the company's stock price plummet from a high of $90.56 in August 2000 to its level on Tuesday of about 78 cents a share.

Houston-based Enron, once a Wall Street darling, filed for bankruptcy court protection on Dec. 2, the largest such filing in U.S. history.

Last week, House Energy and Commerce Committee investigators traveled to Houston to interview Enron's current CFO, Jeffrey McMahon, said Tauzin, a Louisiana Republican, and Greenwood, a Pennsylvania Republican, in their statement.

In their letters, which were made available to Reuters, Tauzin and Greenwood requested a mountain of documents be turned over to the committee by Dec. 17.

The request listed 43 separate aspects of the Enron case in which the committee has interest, including: earnings restatement decisions, financial ties among Enron officers and outside partnerships they were involved with, minutes from board and audit committee meetings from 1997 to present and correspondence between Enron auditor Arthur Andersen and the company.

Separately, the Enron case was scheduled to be taken up by another committee of Congress on Wednesday, although it looked unlikely Enron officials would accept an invitation to appear.

Reflecting the legal sensitivity of the case, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt has decided not to go before the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee to talk about Enron.

Instead, Pitt will send SEC Chief Accountant Robert Herdman to the panel's hearing, which will mark the first public airing of the Enron affair. The SEC has mounted a massive investigation of Enron. Lawyers said Pitt likely declined to attend the hearing to shield the investigation's integrity.

Joe Berardino, chief executive of Arthur Andersen, was expected to testify on Wednesday. But sources said Lay will probably not show up. The House panel had asked Berardino, Lay and Pitt to come before it, but it issued no subpoenas, making acceptance optional.

Enron could not immediately be reached for comment.

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