Senior Enron Employees Seek a Piece of the Leftovers

Enron Corp.’s spectacular collapse left many of its employees with shattered pension plans, but less publicized is up to $400 million the energy trader left owing about 400 of its senior staff.

Now those key employees are lining up to grab back as much of the money as possible in Enron’s bankruptcy proceedings, the biggest in U.S. history.

On the unsecured creditors committee is Michael P. Moran, a retired attorney of the energy trading giant who represents a growing group of more than 100 former Enron employees. The committee represents Enron’s biggest unsecured creditors.

Quick organizing skills won Moran and his group a place on the 15-member committee, a coup that could give them a chance of winning a portion of what they say Enron owes them.

Although the group may win only a fraction of what the former employees are owed, they are better off than those with company stock, who rank behind creditors in dividing the assets of bankrupt companies in Chapter 11 reorganization plans.

The stock, which peaked at $90.56 a share just 16 months ago, closed at 60 cents on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Enron’s collapse dealt a blow to thousands of former and present company workers who held the stock in their retirement plans.

President Bush told reporters Friday that he was deeply concerned about Enron employee losses, but stopped short of proposing remedies.

The creditors committee, composed mostly of giant banks such as J.P. Morgan Chase and bondholders such as Oaktree Capital Management, was appointed Dec. 12 by a U.S. trustee of the Bankruptcy Court to negotiate with Enron during its bankruptcy.

“It was unsecured, but we knew that at the time,” said Moran of deferred compensation payments he made over eight years. “But you don’t expect Enron to go down the tubes.”

Moran, 52, said he retired in August after 28 years with Enron but never received payments under the plan. He estimated that about 400 people participated in the plan, building up $250 million to $400 million in deferred compensation. Participants took part in the plan to build up a tax-deferred next egg.

A spokesman for Enron declined to comment, citing pending litigation that some employees have undertaken against the company.