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March 3, 2006 They're onto Us

From the Enron trial:

Enron Corp.'s top managers fretted over a damning 2001 analyst report, fearful that Wall Street had uncovered its accounting tricks, a former executive testified on Thursday at the trial of former CEOs Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay.

The witness, Kevin Hannon, said the report published in May 2001 by the Off Wall Street Consulting Group valued Enron at only half its value at the time and was discussed at a meeting of Enron's senior managers, including Lay and Skilling.

One top executive told the meeting the report was mostly valid in its criticisms, Hannon said.

"And what did Mr. Skilling say?" prosecutor Cliff Stricklin asked Hannon.

"He said 'They're onto us'," Hannon answered, which he took to mean "the investment community was starting to understand how Enron made money."

Actually, if they thought Enron was only worth half its value, then they weren't even close to being onto them.

Posted by edelfenbein at March 3, 2006 10:48 AM

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