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Former Enron Vice Chairman Commits Suicide
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| J. Clifford Baxter, former top Enron executive committed suicide in Texas |
HOUSTON, Texas, Jan.
26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A former vice chairman of scandal-struck Enron, Cliff Baxter, was found dead Friday after apparently shooting himself in the head, police in Sugar Land, Texas, said.
His corpse was discovered alone in a car at 2:23 a.m. (0823 GMT), said police spokeswoman Pat Whitty.
"Baxter had an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head," she said in a statement, headlined "suicide".
"Baxter was dead at the scene and the sole occupant of the vehicle. A suicide note was found at the scene. There was no apparent sign of any foul play." The contents of the suicide note were not disclosed.
A CNN report quoted Whitty as saying, "There was no sign of foul play. Inside his wallet was an ID indicating he was an employee of Enron."
Baxter resigned from Enron in May last year. He was vice chairman of Enron when he resigned in May 2001, several months before the energy company's collapse.
The company, once No. 7 on the Fortune magazine list of the 500 largest companies, is the subject of multiple investigations, particularly into questionable accounting practices, after filing for bankruptcy on December 2 - the biggest corporate failure in U.S. history. Enron and its accounting firm, Andersen LLP, are under congressional investigation.
CNN reports that investigators had wanted to speak with Baxter, according to a source on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but he had not been subpoened by the committee.
In an internal memo discovered by House of Representatives investigators, a senior Enron executive said Baxter had "complained mightily" about some Enron transactions with a related firm, LJM.
The memo was written to the former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay, who resigned Wednesday. Lay has been one of U.S. President George W. Bush's strongest financial supporters.
Baxter had raised his concerns with former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling, who quit in August last year, said the memo, written by Enron vice president Sherron Watkins.
"Cliff Baxter complained mightily to Skilling and all who would listen about the inappropriateness of our transactions with LJM," said the memo, a copy of which had earlier been released by investigators.
News agencies reported that Watkins' letter to Lay stated that "we will implode in a wave of accounting scandals" unless the company changed its ways.
The energy group revealed large losses in October and the next month admitted it had overstated earnings by nearly $600 million since 1997. It also overstated its equity base by $1.2 billion.
Baxter was among the Enron officers and directors who made massive profits cashing in on Enron stock options. He was one of 29 former and current Enron executives and board members named as defendants in a federal lawsuit, news agencies reported. The lawsuit alleges Baxter had sold 577,436 Enron shares for $35.2 million.
Many Enron staff had their pensions in company shares and lost their life savings while several senior executives made windfall profits by selling shares.
A story in the Houston Business Journal in February last year said Baxter had filed his plans to sell more than 113,000 shares for a potential windfall exceeding $7.8 million.
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