HOUSTON'FBI agents descended on Enron's corporate headquarters Tuesday to begin investigating document shredding at the bankrupt energy trader.
The federal investigators were called in by Enron Corp. officials who rushed to the 19th floor of the company's office tower Monday night after being told that documents had been destroyed since the government began inquiring into the company's collapse in October.
Enron attorney Kenneth Marks said at a court hearing Tuesday that the Enron officials who visited headquarters Monday night found a trash can containing \shredded material,"" which was ""immediately secured."" The officials sealed off the 19th and 20th floors pending the FBI's arrival, he said.
The Justice Department already is investigating the shredding of documents at Enron's accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, which led last week to the firing of the accounting firm's lead Enron auditor, David Duncan.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee also announced Tuesday that it will issue subpoenas Wednesday ordering Duncan; Joseph Berardino, Andersen's chief executive; and two other Andersen officials, attorney Nancy Temple and risk manager Michael Odom, to appear to testify at a hearing Thursday on the Andersen shredding. Andersen signed off on Enron financial statements, whose correction last fall triggered the spiral into bankruptcy.
Committee spokesman Ken Johnson said it is likely Duncan will invoke his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination and not testify. Robert Giuffra, Duncan's attorney, said, ""No final decision has been made"" on whether his client will testify.
Marks said that when Enron officials found the shredded documents, he immediately called Leslie Ragon Caldwell, head of the federal task force conducting a criminal investigation of Enron. Caldwell told him, he said, that the FBI would begin interviewing Enron employees to determine what was shredded, when and why.
Marks said that after the Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating the company in October, Enron employees worldwide were told not to destroy records.
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'Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
