Home | China | World | Business U.S. Congress to Question Former Enron CEO Skilling Again TUE, FEB 26, 2002     U.S. Congress will question former Enron chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling again on Tuesday, but this time along with other Enron officials whose versions of events are different with his. The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the Enron collapse on Tuesday. Besides Skilling, Enron Vice President Sherron Watkins, Enron's president and chief operating officer Jeffrey McMahon will also be witnesses. Lawmakers want to bring together the three witnesses and put the same questions to each of them and compare their answers at the hearing, congressional sources said. All three testified, separately and under oath, this month before a House investigative panel. Other top Enron executives, including former chairman Kenneth Lay, have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against potential self-incrimination and refused to answer questions. Skilling's earlier testimony that he knew few details of questionable transactions involving a partnership used to hide more than 1 billion dollars in debt has been challenged by lawmakers and also Watkins, who warned Lay in August of potentially serious accounting problems in the company. McMahon testified on February 7 that he was transferred out of his job as treasurer shortly after he complained to Skilling about the partnerships in a meeting on March 16, 2000. "We are determined to understand what happened at the Enron Corp.," said Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan, whose Commerce subcommittee on consumer affairs is investigating the energy trading giant's collapse. "The witnesses we will hear from Tuesday, and the format in which they will appear, promise to be very helpful in that effort," he said. Enron filed for bankruptcy protection on December 2, becoming the largest bankruptcy case in U.S. history. Investors nationwide lost money and thousands of Enron employees were stripped of their retirement savings in accounts loaded with Enron stock as it plummeted. The Justice Department, the Labor Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and various panels in U.S. Congress are investigating Enron and the role of its auditor, Arthur Andersen. Editor:Liu Hongji Source:Xinhua Recommend to your friend email:    China Central Television,All Rights Reserved