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U.S. Chamber Proposal Rips Apart Enron-Era Reforms
Tuesday, March 13, 2007 (Washington, DC)—The U.S. Chamber
of Commerce has released a wish list that would render corporations
secure in their negligence while striking a blow to American consumers
and shareholders.
“These proposals do nothing but protect corporations and their
executives from being held accountable for fraud and acts of negligence,’’
said Jon Haber, chief executive officer of the American Association
for Justice. “The U.S. Chamber already is trying to brush under
the rug the hard-earned lessons absorbed from Enron, WorldCom and
the other corporate scandals that rocked the economy and ruined peoples’
lives.’’
The U.S. Chamber on Wednesday unveiled a series of initiatives aimed
at easing regulations that hold corporations accountable for their
wrongdoing and leave consumers and shareholders out in the cold. The
scheme, developed by the U.S. Chamber’s hand-picked Commission
on the Regulation of U.S. Capital Markets in the 21st Century, includes
new rules regarding investor rights, efforts to make the Securities
and Exchange Commission more corporate friendly and a general rollback
of regulations adopted as a result of the Enron and WorldCom scandals.
The release comes in wake of a $72.5 million settlement reached Friday
in a lawsuit filed by Enron investors against the Arthur Anderson
accounting firm. In 2000, Enron ranked 7th among all US companies
in market capitalization in 2007, claiming revenues of more than $100
billion. Yet, on Dec. 2, 2001, the company filed for bankruptcy, erasing
the pensions of thousands of employees and washing billions of dollars
in investor’s money down the drain.
Enron’s influence was built on fraud. Company directors hid
debt and inflating revenue while executives used insider information
swindle stockholders out of millions of dollars encouraging the general
public and Enron shareholders to keep buying. Arthur Anderson was
indicted for destroying what was described as “tons of paper
documents’’ related to the investigation.
The proposals erase protections needed to avoid future Enron scandals
while offering new proof of the U.S. Chamber’s desire to shill
for their corporate godfathers at the expense of workers and investors.
“The Sarbanes-Oxley reforms were developed to prevent the sort
of massive corporate misconduct we witnessed in the Enron scandal,’’
Haber said. “Now, less than five years after the law’s enactment,
the U.S. Chamber wants to abandon the rules and open the door to new
scandals in an unconscionable power grab.’’
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