Too Late to Pursue Enron Case, Justice Says

[kskiska]

Justice Department officials said yesterday that the statute of limitations prohibits them from pursuing allegations of bribery by Enron Corp. officials in a Guatemala power-generating project. But they declined say why the case was not pursued when the department received a criminal referral from the Internal Revenue Service in 1999.

The account of Enron's dealings in Guatemala are in a report released yesterday by the Senate Finance Committee. Investigators found more than $17 million in questionable payments to a Panamanian corporation, Sun King Trading Co., which had ties to former president Jorge Serrano. An internal Enron memo said "the Sun King payments don't represent any REAL service."

The IRS in Houston referred the case to Attorney General Janet Reno in May 1999. Peter B. Clark, deputy chief of Justice's fraud division, wrote back a month later: "We appreciate the receipt of information concerning potential violations" of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Yesterday, responding to inquires made to Clark, Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said there could be no prosecution because statute of limitations under the corrupt-practices act expired after five years.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64968-2003Jul29.html

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

1. No but it wasn't too late to pursue Whitewater.

Which turned out to be none scandal. G DUHbya's just trying to protect his butt buddy Kenny Boy Lay.

[dusty64]

2. Good point,

Department of "Justice" my ass. Only if you're a donor of the repig party.

[peacetalksforall]

5. Even after the government had already declared that there wasn't any

criminal wrong doing by the Clintons. The right wing wouldn't accept it. They had to spend our money and ruin innocent lives, then declare a victory against Clinton because they caught others, but could prove nothing wrong by the Clintons.

[gristy]

3. We have a $17 million theft/bribe and the statute of limitations is

5 f***ing years?? :wtf:

[ze_dscherman]

8. And poor people get holed up for life for stealing some pizza

Just make the crime big enough, and you get away with it easily.

Or, like Bert Brecht wrote in Mahagonny Songspiel: "What is the robbery of one bank compared to the founding of a bank?"

[Pallas180]

4. It' s all Clinton' s fault. Get it?

:thumbsdown:

[clarkbarr]

6. "Justice" means "Just-Us Rich White KKKristian Folks"

What do you expect from a bench packed with assholes from the Federalist Society?

[jamesinca]

7. When will it be to late to pursue Enron in CA

Oh that is right, the FERC already said Enron was wrong, but no contracts could be changed, CA had to live with it. Enron must be huge contributers to the BFEE and repug party.

[ColumbusGirl]

9. I fear it's already too late....

to get any of them.

Move on. Nothing to see here. Doggonit.

[AndyTiedye]

11. Not just Big

Ken Lay was THE BIGGEST contributor and fundraiser for Der Shrub!

[I AM SPARTACUS]

10. Seems awfully conveeeeeenient...

[Democat]

12. Never too late to trash Martha Stewart

But Martha donated to Democrats, so there is always plenty of time to bring her down.

[duid12]

13. Clinton justice department

Hey, you can blame it all on bush if you want, but this case was referred to the CLINTON justice department in 1999...not the Bush justice department.

Its obvious why the Bush justice department won't/hasn't pursued the Enron case very agressively....but what was Clintons/Renos excuse?

How can you blame Bush for doing exactly what Clinton did...and give Clinton a pass?

If you are going to be principled (as you should be), you should be principled no matter who is in office...can't just give your own party a pass when it is in the wrong.

[geomon]

14. You message

will go over the heads of many rabid partisans here.

:)

[tomp]

15. agreed. nt

[Justice]

16. Easy to Blame Clinton, But Let's Get the Facts First

I get your point, and it is valid -- but when a prosecutor gets a case, they don't immediately file a complaint.

The statute of limitations was FIVE years. Am I losing it, how does a complaint made in 1999 with a SOL of 5 years become barred in 2003?? Sounds like the SOL runs from the "bad" activity.

Who knows what Reno was doing with it in 1999 - maybe the real story is it got swept under the rug in January 2000 by Mr. Ashcroft et al.

The reason I say this is because it is just way too slick to say - we can't bring the case because the 5 year SOL has run (like gee we are just discovering their was a case.......) Even IF Reno didn't do anything from May to December in 1999, how did that prevent Ashcroft from doing anything from January 2000 to May 2003? If Grassley is going to be indignant, let's be fair to both sides of the aisle for dropping the ball.

What needs to happen here is Reno, the guy that wrote the letter to the IRS or some other member of the Clinton Justice Dept needs to set the facts straight. Let's hope they can and do.

[jamesinca]

17. You mean Jan of '01

Still the point is well made. I am not giving Clinton a pass on this one, I am not giving Bush a pass on this one either. 60% of this time fell on the Bush watch. Reno maybe started it, then Ashcroft drug his feet, I don't know maybe it was the other way around. Bush is in office now, it is not like he got in yesterday. Most of the time for the SOL was on the Bush watch. He administration did not have to get the startup work done on this, it handed to them as an active thing. Like I said if Reno drug her feet then Ashcroft would be starting from scratch when he got in to office. I an case, I hate Bush, Clinton is not in office now and they have had enough time to finish this business on their watch instead of letting it die.

on edit: one more post and I hit the 1,000 mark

[leQ]

18. isn't it possible that the investigation couldn't have been completed

before clinton left office, thereby no charges could be filed? when has there ever been a justice department investigation that took less than 3 years? to wit: 9/11, which obviously is STILL under investigation.

[Bandit]

25. You don't know it wasn't pursued by Reno and dropped by Ashcroft

You are making assumptions here and don't know the full story.

[tomp]

26. anyone who accuses only the bush doj...

...is making the same assumption.

[robbedvoter]

19. Woo-hoo! Ann Richards must have a ball! She'll play golf

maybe even try a Segway again!
Statute of Limitations? For crimes committed in 2001? That's cute! And I am sure that the Fisk/Starr/Ray investigation of Whitewater was under 5 years long, non?

[TahitiNut]

20. About the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

IIRC, its statute of limitations was reduced (from about 7-10 years?) in legislation initiated by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Enron) sometime around '96-'97 ... which was merely one of a whole series of assaults on this very essential legislation since it was passed in the 70's. (I looked into this about 2 years ago, but can't find my notes.)

On edit: IMHO, this might be a very interesting area of investigation as a follow-up to this news story. It's too bad our 'journalists' aren't motivated to do so. :shrug:

[ctex]

21. When did the clock start ticking on the SOL for this case?

For most civil and criminal infractions the period for Statute of Limitations begins at that time when one first becomes aware, or should have become aware, that something wrong was done.

Enron built this power plant in the first half of the 90s and the bribes were apparently paid in 1994 (or maybe sooner) since Enron began amortising the cost of the bribe for tax purposes in the 1994.

If the clock started ticking in 1994 or 1995, the SOL was reached by 2000 at the latest. OTOH, if the government were not aware of a potential infraction until May, 1999 the SOL would still have about 10 months to go.

[TahitiNut]

22. While IANAL, I believe it's the DOJ's job to ...

petition the court for a "date of discovery" application of the statute of limitations. It's my impression that the DOJ not only failed to do so, but (in effect) became an advocate for Enron in their very failure to do so. It also seems to me that subsequent actions (tax filings, etc.) on Enron's part could be addressed within the statute of limitations timeframe and still under the CPA provisons. I don't see that the DOJ made any effort in this regard.

[TahitiNut]

24. Interestingly, Canada's FCPA has no limitation period.

In implementing their FCPA (per OECD pressure), Canada apparently decided that a statue of limitations for violations of their FCPA wouldn't apply.

"Since the Act provides for bribery of a foreign public official to be an indictable offence, no limitation period applies."

http://www.transparency-usa.org/OECD_Canada.htm

[TahitiNut]

27. More information ...

Of 28 countries implementing an FCPA-like law per the OECD's guidance, the US's statute of limitations under it's provisions is the shortest.

Of the twenty-eight countries evaluated by November 13, 2001, nineteen have adopted a statute of limitations of at least five years and three countries have no statute of limitations. See Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Country Reports on the Implementation of the Convention, at http://www.oecd.org/oecd/pages/home/displaygeneral/0,3380,EN-document-88-nodirectorate-no-3-16889–31,FF.html (last visited Nov. 8, 2002) . In fact, Iceland increased the statute of limitations where the offense only subjects the offender to fines (which generally applies to legal persons) from two years to five years following the Working Group’s examination. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Iceland: Review of Implementation of the Convention and 1997 Recommendation 20 & n.6, at http://www.oecd.org/pdf/M00007000/M00007834.pdf (last visited Nov. 8, 2002).

(Seen here)

I should note that the OECD's 'guidance' on the statute of limitations is that it should provide an adequate amount of time to investigate and prosecute -- clearly a 'guidance' that's not being heard by US Enronized legislators and the current DOJ.

[TahitiNut]

28. An interesting site.

Here's a web site that might offer many fascinating hours of perusal, which might begin at this page:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jksonc/bribery.html

Enjoy. :evilgrin:

[havocmom]

23. "Too late..." means the campaign donation checks

have already been cashed!