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Enron Pensions Still Under Old Management

By: Author Unknown
The New York Times, March 5, 2002

Washington, March 4 — Despite an agreement three weeks ago to replace the executives who oversee Enron's pension plans with an independent official, the retirement plans are still being supervised by the executives who did little when Enron stock plummeted last year, a senior Democratic lawmaker said today.

Representative George Miller of California, the ranking minority member on the House Education and Work Force Committee, said he was "deeply troubled" that the executives had not been replaced.

Enron's 401(k) retirement plan was heavy with company stock, and employees saw the value of that plan lose more than $1 billion last year when the stock price collapsed. On Feb. 13, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao announced an agreement to replace the officials with an independent official, paid for by Enron.

"There is convincing evidence that Enron fiduciaries had significant warning of Enron's financial collapse but failed to act to protect employees' retirement savings," Mr. Miller said. "I am deeply troubled that the administration has failed to act to protect the remaining retirement savings at Enron despite its earlier pledge to so."

Labor Department officials said they were working to secure an independent fiduciary who can take over the three pension plans and provide company employees and retirees confidence that their interests will be protected. A spokeswoman for the department said officials were optimistic an announcement would be made soon.

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