Enron Stellar Witnesses
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Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling are seeing their trial over the collapse of Enron grind on. The government is still presenting its case. Of the next three witnesses, two are co-operating with prosecutors. Main charge against Lay and Skilling is that they continously lied to investors and employees about the health of Enron. On the contrary they allegedly knew that the energy company was on its knees. Accounting tricks and weak business ventures was all that held the company up. The defendants argue that negative publicity that sucked market confidence in the company drove it into bankruptcy. Already in the fourth week, the trial is expected to last for another four months. The next three witnesses are Paula Rieker, Wes Colwell and and Wanda Curry. "Rieker in May 2004 pleaded guilty to insider dealing charges. At Enron she rose to become the company's corporate secretary. Knowing that a business unit had lost millions more than Skilling was publicly disclosing, she cashed out her share options. When she entered her plea, Rieker settled SEC allegations that said she provided ""substantial assistance to Enron executives and senior managers in the dissemination of false and misleading information to the public about Enron business units in analyst calls and earnings releases."" "Colwell was a trading-division accountant, who to settle allegations of manipulating earnings had to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $500,000. He has not been convicted of any crime, nor is he to stand trial. He is alleged to have hidden losses and profts on trading so that they could be smoothed out over time. Curry, an accountant uncovered contracts overvalued by hundreds of millions of dollars. The affected trading contracts, meant that it would be not bring in the cash from them. Thus earnings booked up front would never be realised.
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