Schwarzenegger pressed to give details of Ken Lay meeting

California-based lobby group, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR), has asked Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s governor-elect, to explain the substance of his private May 2001 meeting with Enron chief, Ken Lay. FTCR, a non-profit education and advocacy organisation, was the state's most vocal critic of Governor Davis' handling of the 2001 energy crisis.

The FTCR says that if Schwarzenegger does not recount the meeting by the time of his inauguration, the group will press lawmakers to subpoena the governor-elect and other attendees in order to reveal his knowledge of the details "surrounding the biggest financial rip-off in state history and Enron's efforts to continue that crime"."In attending that meeting, you were privy to information inaccessible to the federal government, as Ken Lay has 'taken the fifth' during investigations into his role in the crisis, including any information that might further the state's efforts to return billions of dollars that taxpayers and consumers overpaid for electricity during the 2001 energy crisis," the FTCR wrote in a letter to Schwarzenegger.

In addition to calling on Schwarzenegger to come clean about the meeting with Lay, the group highlighted key aspects of the governor-elect's energy programme that reflect what it believes to be an "Enron-perspective on energy policy". The FTCR has asked Schwarzenegger to rewrite his energy policy and remove his push for further energy deregulation.

“While California faced blackouts and rate hikes...you were secretly meeting with Enron's Ken Lay, who had come to be widely reviled by Californians as the progenitor of deregulation and the head of the gang stealing billions from our businesses, consumers and taxpayers,” the FTCR told Schwarzenegger. “It was his firm, you will recall, that developed the market manipulation strategies known by such names as Get Shorty, Death Star and Fat Boy.”

FTCR also said Californians deserve to know the extent of Ken Lay's influence over Schwarzenegger’s energy policy. “Your proposal to revisit the deregulation experiment that exploded into California's single worst financial and public policy disaster directly contradicts the public interest in ending deregulation once and for all. Californians cannot afford another deregulation nightmare,” the FTCR added.

“Californians elected you to be different,” the FTCR continued. “Coming clean about your meeting with Ken Lay is a first step, and rewriting your energy policy would be the next.”

Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.

To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@risk.net or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.risk.net/subscribe

You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@risk.net to find out more.

Stemming the tide of rising FX settlement risk

As the trading of emerging markets currencies gathers pace and broader uncertainty sweeps across financial markets, CLS is exploring alternative services designed to mitigate settlement risk for the FX market

You need to sign in to use this feature. If you don’t have a Risk.net account, please register for a trial.

Sign in
You are currently on corporate access.

To use this feature you will need an individual account. If you have one already please sign in.

Sign in.

Alternatively you can request an individual account here