Enron Sues Investment Banks, Brokerages

HOUSTON -- Enron Corp. is suing a string of banks, brokerage firms and their subsidiaries that financed its deals and partnerships, accusing them of participating in deliberately murky transactions for millions of dollars in fees that helped create the failed energy company's facade of success, The Associated Press reported Thursday.

Defendants in the lawsuit filed late Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York include banking titans J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc., two of Enron's largest creditors.

The two banks in July paid nearly $300 million to settle regulatory allegations of helping the company defraud investors by setting up complex financial transactions that inflated profits and hid debt.

Also among defendants is Merrill Lynch & Co., which paid $80 million in March to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it helped Enron commit fraud. The firm avoided prosecution last week by agreeing to cooperate with the Justice Department's Enron Task Force and implementing internal reforms to prevent future dubious deals with clients.

Other defendants include Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Deutsche Bank AG, and Barclays Bank PLC.

-- NYSSCPA.org News Staff

Posted on 9/25/03