Here’s yet another report of Enron’s evildoing, this one about a variety of questionably legal tactics to skirt tax laws. I could quote large bits of this, but I think the following sums up everything you need to know:
Enron received tax advice that pushed legal boundaries from established companies such as Bankers Trust and from its outside law firm, Vinson & Elkins, the congressional panel said in a report on its yearlong probe of Enron’s tax records.
The company’s tax department became a profit center, with its own annual revenue targets, the report says.
“Show Me the Money!” is emblazoned on an internal Enron document regarding a transaction, one of a trove released by the committee.
Emphasis mine. What more can you say?
Taxes a PROFIT CENTER!? Holy crap.
I’ve recently taken up crystal ball gazing to earn some money on the side, and I have a prediction about the future: there is some really long, well-deserved jail time coming.
Well, Binkley, I hope you are correct.
As a west coast energy consumer whose utility bills are no more directly related to Mr. Lay than I am to Mr. Bacon, I can say that this fiasco has cost me personally more the $20,000 so far (no stock, just utility bills, and, although gas has come down, my electrical utility was wrecked by this, and may take another five years to cure itself).
For my own trust in the American system, I need to see at least one head atop a pike outside the castle. Although he might not be worthy of all the blame I would like to heap upon him, seeing Mr. Lay’s countance mouldering there, under the wind and rain, would do me a world of good.