New Post-Enron Rules Considered

U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill said Sunday his department was reviewing whether revisions were necessary in U.S. regulations to protect investors after the collapse of energy giant Enron Corp.

“I think the dust hasn’t cleared yet on this case and it is not clear whether the company fulfilled all of its obligations under the existing rules,” O’Neill said of provisions that allowed top executives to sell shares while employees holding Enron stock in retirement plans could not.

“If they did [comply with U.S. regulations], it suggests that we need rule change. If, on the contrary, it turns out that they didn’t fully comply with all the rules, we have a different issue on our hands,” O’Neill said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

He declined to elaborate on issues that noncompliance would raise.

Houston-based Enron is under investigation in Washington by the market-regulating Securities and Exchange Commission, the Justice and Labor departments and at least five congressional committees.

A Wall Street darling just a few months ago, Enron on Dec. 2 made the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history after a rescue takeover by rival Dynegy Inc. fell apart amid investor concerns about Enron’s murky finances.

Once ranked No. 7 on the Fortune 500 list of top companies, Enron’s stock on Friday closed at 66 cents a share on the New York Stock Exchange, off from an August 2000 high of $90.

Thousands of Enron employees lost their jobs and much of their retirement savings in the collapse.