Features

Agency sets up ’Enron link’ for reporting suspicious activities

The Associated Press
Friday May 24, 2002

WASHINGTON – A federal agency set up an “Enron Information Link” for people to report suspicious activities involving Enron or other companies that may have affected West Coast energy prices. 

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said a questionnaire is available by clicking on the Enron Information Link under the Customer Protection heading on the agency’s Web page at http://www.cftc.gov. 

The government is investigating whether now-bankrupt Enron Corp. or other energy companies manipulated the power market in California — where wholesale energy prices shot up tenfold during the crisis in 2000 and 2001. 

An Enron corporate document released recently described how the company’s traders sought to cash in on the state’s energy crisis using strategies named “Death Star,” “Ricochet,” “Fat Boy” and “Get Shorty.” 

The new questionnaire is to be used for reporting suspicious activities or transactions involving Enron or any other company that may have affected West Coast electricity or natural gas prices, or any other commodity, from January 2000 through Dec. 31, 2001. It can be transmitted electronically or by mail to the Division of Enforcement, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, 140 Broadway, New York, New York 10005, or by fax to 646-746-9939. 

The CFTC said there are two other ways in which people can submit any relevant information: 

—Call the agency’s toll-free voice mailbox and leave a message at 866-616-1783. 

—Send an e-mail to enron(at)cftc.gov.