Enron's fine employees back in the news

"Tapes: Enron plotted to shut down power plant":

"We want you guys to get a little creative ... and come up with a reason to go down," the Enron worker tells the plant employee on one of the tapes.

"Anything you want to do over there? ... Cleaning, anything like that?" the Enron employee says.

"Yeah, yeah," the other replies. "There's some stuff we could be doing."

As a result, a Las Vegas power plant went off-line on January 17, 2001.

The tapes containing this an other conversations were released as part of a lawsuit by a PacNW power company. More:

...Earlier tapes obtained during the Enron-Snohomish lawsuit indicated Enron had manipulated the Western power grid for a year and a half.

Those tapes include traders gloating profanely about overcharging "Grandma Millie" in California.

The utility has asked federal regulators to throw out the $122 million contract with Enron to provide electricity -- a contract it says was inflated by Enron's manipulation of Western energy prices in 2000 and 2001...

And, from "Enron Schemes Caught On Tape":

During the West Coast Power crisis homes went dark and streetlights were out in California - causing injuries and accidents. But the danger didn't stop Enron's energy traders from having a good laugh.

CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports on the Enron scheme, as caught on new audio tape. The traders and plant operator laugh and plot in a display that seems to prove the theory that years before the energy crisis, Enron manipulated markets.

"They had to do a rolling blackout through the town and there was a red light there he didn't see," one Enron trader says on tape.

"That's beautiful," a second voice responds.

"I'm like, this is causing animosity throughout the state now," the first says. "Cars are blowing up..."

Audio is available at that page.

Note also that Ken "Kenny Boy" Lay has/had ties to both Our Leader as well as Our Prospective Leader.

UPDATE: And, Our Horndog Leader.

Politics · Thu, 02/03/2005 - 20:54 · · Importance: 1