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Lawmakers Consider Enron Role in California Crisis

1/16/2002

LCG, Jan. 16, 2002--The California Senate Rules Committee may compel Enron Corp. officials and Arthur Andersen representatives to provide sworn testimony concerning documents dealing with last year's power market crisis.

The legislators on the committee realize that such documents may have been destroyed when Arthur Andersen Accounting received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The partner in charge of Enron audits, David Duncan, has been discharged by Arthur Andersen. The investigation Senate members are conducting into possible market manipulation during California's power crisis could be aided by some of the same documents.

Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Santa Ana, who chairs a special Senate task force on price manipulation, told the Sacramento Bee that Enron submitted 133,464 documents to the Rules Committee in response to subpoenas, after failing to comply for months. In September, it turned over documents with under a confidentiality agreement. Dunn told the Sacramento Bee the documents were "woefully inadequate" in satisfying the subpoena.

Dunn further said the "destruction of any documents that were under subpoena from this legislative committee is a violation of California law," and that if it had taken place, the committee would "take all necessary action that is available to us."