NYSE Removes Enron from List

While the U.S. Congress is accelerating the probe into what led to Enron`s collapse, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) decided to remove Enron from its list on the 14th. Hence, Enron stocks, whose stock price once rose up to 90.56 dollars in 2000, became wastepaper. The price of Enron stocks plunged to 67 cents on the 10th.

▽Officially confessed the destruction of the documents = Arthur Andersen, who was accused of bungling Enron`s audit, confessed the deliberate destruction of mail and documents related to Enron for the first time on the 15th and fired leading investment partner, David Duncan.

Andersen found out through internal investigation that Mr. Duncan organized a rush disposal on October 23rd and ordered thousands of paper documents to be destroyed right after the Securities and Exchange Commission requested information for the Enron audit.

Anderson placed three other auditors on leave and its Houston office was stripped of management responsibilities.

▽Congressional probe = the House Energy and Commerce Committee(HECC), which is investigating Arthur Andersen`s illegal audit on Enron`s account, is likely to call and investigate Mr. Duncan who intentionally destroyed Enron`s documents. An official of the HECC said on the 16th, "We are examining the records and 6 boxes of files that had been submitted to the HECC before Mr. Duncan was fired."

Sen. Paul Sarbanes, chairperson of the Senate Banking Committee, reportedly requested the investigative arm of Congress, the General Accounting Office to investigate financial reporting and employee retirement funds in company stock. SBC will call the hearings for Enron on February 12th.

Previously, NYSE suspended the trading of Enron stocks and removed Enron stocks from the list. The NYSE said that it took this action because the process of Enron`s bankruptcy is expected to be protracted, and the impact on the shareholders and the time and result of the bankruptcy are uncertain. Foreign presses reported that Enron could protest NYSE`s action but it would not be reversed.

Sung-Kyu Kim kimsk@donga.com