Whilst the British media focuses on its typical stereotyping of Black youth as ‘mobile phone muggers,’ a cursory glance into the history books of this ‘great’ technological and economic Nation will show the greatest and most heinous ‘mugging’ that has ever taken place - the enslavement of African people by Great Britain and her baby nation, America.

As muggers go, on the other side of the Atlantic a ‘Corporate Mugging’ of epic financial proportions is being examined by Congressional Hearings, into Enron, once the 7th largest company in Corporate America, and which filed for bankruptcy on 2nd December 2001, with losses totalling $55 billion. Could this become President George W. Bush’s ‘Watergate,’ who has been linked to the Enron Company’s financial scandal?

Claiming victory for the western ‘free world’ in the ‘War Against Terrorism,’ “President Bush and his administration are entwined in a story of corporate greed and political manipulation involving energy giant Enron, now the target of a double criminal investigation” into its financial irregularities.

On the 2nd December 2001, Enron, America’s 7th largest Company declared itself bankrupt with losses totaling $55 billion resulting in America’s biggest bankruptcy filing in American history. “Enron is a Houston-based utility trading company that sells energy to industrial and domestic consumers.” “It is one of the biggest firms of its kinds in the world, a standing it owes in small part to Bush’s governorship in Texas,” The Observer 13/1/02 - [The Enron Scandal].

Exposed to full view

Back in August 2001, an explosion that killed three people occurred at its Teesside power plant in the UK, and ever since a ‘can-of-worms’ has been opened into the financial irregularities of Enron, its auditors and internal governing board.

Until that unfortunate event “the public profile in this country of the US energy company was pretty low,” www.independent.co.uk 10/8/01. During that period, “The former Conservative Energy Secretary Lord Wakeman... in 1990 helped to privatise the UK’s Electricity industry and gave consent for Enron to build Britain’s largest private power plant on Teesside.” Ironically, when Labour came to power it vowed, “...not to allow any more new private gas-fired power stations.”

Enron also owns Wessex water, employs 21,000 staff in more than 40 countries and in just 15 years, from humble beginnings grew to become America’s 7th largest company. In India “...despite enormous public hostility, it was the driving force behind plans for a massive power station that was built at Dabhol, near Bombay.”

Enron’s business tentacles reached as far as the Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos, Mauritius, Bermuda: where subsidiary companies were established for the purpose of avoiding paying tax. These companies were also used to hide the enormous losses of the company; some say over $600 million, whilst the company continued trading and those in the know made huge profits before the company collapsed.

The financial collapse of “Enron was just the kind of scandal a war would hide,” which went unreported to the employee’s and the public for several months. Many employees invested their savings in the company stock (shares) - some their life savings - but “The ethical - maybe criminal - core of the scandal is that Enron trapped its employees into a ‘stock-lock-, whereby they were not allowed to sell” their shares. “When the company collapsed, they lost everything.”

Dirty Insider Trading

Meanwhile top executives of the company - aware of Enron’s dire financial situation were “...blessed by inside information and foresight - made a killing by scrambling to sell shares,” and “...cashed in stock and stock options for up to $1 billion (£700m)” before the company collapsed. They were in fact “amassing personal fortunes.” www.observer.co.uk 13/1/02.

Ordinary people working for Enron are the real victims of this scandal of which “It has long being reported how the Bush...family...” has its fingers neatly interwoven in the Enron scandal with political favours being granted during Bush Senior and Bush Juniors presidency’s.

People like Pat Betteridge of an Enron subsidiary company invested $300,000 to buy 3,500 shares has now seen his shares become worthless. A retired Wallis Hoffarth, a colleague of Betteridge’s, saw his $120,000 of shares also become worthless

In London, according to the BBC News web site, “The Company’s administrators, PricewaterhousCoopers, said 1,100 staff had been made redundant across the UK.”  UK banks are also affected with “Enron’s UK subsidiaries owing millions of pounds to banks including Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Abbey National.” “National Australia bank, which owns Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank in the UK” could potentially lose £141 million.

President George W. Bush

President George Bush’s personal gain from Enron has been “nearly $2 million,” since 1993, which was given to him by Enron executives. “Kenneth Lay also donated $326,000 in soft money to the Republican Party over the three years prior to Bush’s presidential bid.”

In 1997 when Enron wanted to expand into “Pennsylvania, one of America’s biggest energy markets...” the chairman of Enron, Kenneth Lay, who referred to George W. Bush as ‘Kenny boy’ approached him for help. “Bush called the then state governor, Tom Ridge, to pitch for Enron, whose bid duly succeeded.” After the 11th September 2001, Tom Ridge was made “Secretary of Homeland security.”

With the political favours granted by Bush Senior and Junior, Enron payments to President Bush, the funding of George W. Bush’s election campaign in the year-2000 election, the meeting of Enron executives to discuss the nations energy plan, one is left to question the role of government and the undue influence the private sector has over national policy.

Government Responsibility

Governments are duly constituted to implement and carry out policy for the benefit of the citizens and to vigorously rebuff any undue influence that would require it to concede benefits in return for financial gain.

Whilst fingers are pointed at African nations for their level of corruption here we find, not only that the highest office in the land - The President’s - has been corrupted in order to effect policy on behalf of one section of the nation, to the extent that citizens lose their life savings and jobs, mugging people of their pensions.

Corporate Probity

Robert Maxwell’s plundering of the pension funds of his employees demonstrates a propensity to criminality and corruption by corporate owners. Likewise the Enron scandal with debts owed by the company being hidden in order to boost its profits and the resulting loss of pension funds of its employees, highlights glaring weaknesses in corporate management and the institutions deployed to ensure the highest standards of financial management in the society.

President George W. Bush’s involvement in this scandal along with members of his government will unravel as the days and months pass by, but the true lesson is for you and I to reconsider how much trust can we put in companies whose executives connive and inveigle how to make more and more profit at our expense. When will we learn?