Enron bosses paid $744m before bankruptcy

Enron executives were paid $744 million (€827 million) in the year leading up to its bankruptcy filing.

Enron executives were paid $744 million (€827 million) in the year leading up to its bankruptcy filing.

The company has revealed that 144 senior managers reaped the money - in stock and payments - in its filing to the bankruptcy court.

Representatives of former workers and shareholders have accused the bosses of raiding Enron's coffers while leaving their clients with relatively little or nothing at all.

Enron disclosed in a 1,436-page filing with the federal bankruptcy court in New York yesterday that the executives received $309.5 million in salary, bonuses, long-term incentives, loan advances and other payments.

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The executives also exercised stock options and received stock valued at $434.5 million, according to the filing.

Among the executives who shared in the pay and awards were: former chairman Mr Kenneth Lay, former chief executive Mr Jeffrey Skilling and former chief financial officer Mr Andrew Fastow. Army Secretary Thomas White, who ran Enron's retail energy services unit, was also listed.

Mr Eli Gottesdiener, a Washington attorney representing 24,000 participants in Enron retirement plans who lost as much as $1 billion on the collapse of Enron's stock, said: "It's outrageous. My clients find it outrageous and it's just more evidence that people at the top knew that they better get, while the getting was good.

"And they did, and my clients are left holding the bag. They drained the company of hundreds of millions of dollars," Mr Gottesdiener said.

Besides the executives pay and awards, Enron funded a retention bonus plan in the fall of 2001 with $50 million to keep 76 employees "deemed critical" to the energy company's wholesale trading operations.

Shortly thereafter, the company's proposed merger with crosstown rival Dynegy failed.