El Paso, Dynegy, Reliant energy traders indicted

[UpInArms]

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/newsfinder/pulseone.asp?dateid=38320.6218293866-828209831&siteID=mktw&scid=0&doctype=806&property=symb&value=&categories=&

WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- Indictments were unsealed Monday against five former energy traders from El Paso Corp. (EP) , Dynegy (DYN) , and Reliant Energy (RRI) , the Houston Chronicle reported. The traders are accused of reporting false natural gas prices to trade publications in an effort to impact published indices. The traders charged include former El Paso trader Pat Phillips, former El Paso trader Greg Singleton, former El Paso trader Don Burwell, former Reliant trader Jerry Futch, and former Dynegy trader Michelle Valencia.

...very short newsblurb...

Throw in Duke and Enron and you definitely have a toxic stew.

[gratuitous]

1. Wow, the indictments were unsealed Monday

Isn't it lucky that they weren't unsealed before the election? I wonder when they were handed down originally?

[UpInArms]

3. case has been going on for 2 years now

http://www.parnold.com/articles/buman/buabloomberg.htm

December 9, 2002
Dynegy, AEP Energy Traders May Face Charges in Probe
By Mark Johnson

Houston, Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Energy traders at Dynegy Inc. and American Electric Power Co. may face criminal charges for lying about transactions to industry publications, after the indictment of an El Paso Corp. natural-gas trader last week, a former prosecutor and utility analysts said.

Todd Geiger, who traded natural gas for El Paso, pleaded not guilty today in Houston on charges of wire fraud and making a false trade report, the U.S. attorney's office said. Geiger was accused of lying to a publication that compiles price indexes. Dynegy and AEP have said their traders also gave bogus data.

Geiger's indictment "is just a shot across the bow of the industry,'' said Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey. "They'll be pursuing with equal vigor any efforts to illegally manipulate the marketplace.''

Phony reports of prices are just one target of the widening probes of the industry by regulators and prosecutors. California has accused El Paso and other power and gas suppliers manipulated prices during the state's energy crisis. Dynegy and others have disclosed bogus trades and accounting errors.

Last week's indictment stemmed from an investigation of wash trades, also known as round-trip trades, in which companies simultaneously buy and sell power at the same quantity and price to make their businesses seem larger than they are.

...more...

and here's another link for today's news:

http://www.apga.org/gasnewsdetail.cfm?ArticleID=125

Former Dynegy Trader Indicted For Providing False Gas Price Data

US attorneys indicted a former Dynegy trader on Monday for giving false price data to a natural gas reporting publication, a move that should further erode confidence in the industry's price indexes.

Michael Shelby, US Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, released the indictment against former Dynegy employee Michelle Valencia, 32, charging her with three counts of willfully transmitting false trade reports used in natural gas price indices and with four counts of wire fraud.

According to a statement released by Dynegy, Valencia was one of seven employees fired after the company first claimed knowledge of the false trades.

The case was developed using information that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) gained in its settlement with Dynegy that resulted in a $5 million fine against them, CFTC said. The settlement found that Dynegy and its joint venture with NRG Energy -- West Coast Power -- gave false prices to the reporting publications from January 2000 through June 2002.

...more...

[cavanaghjam]

2. They can all join Kenny Boy

basking in the sun on tropical beaches from which there is no extradition.

[nibbana]

4. These are the "scrubs"...

Where are all the fat cats who put them up to this...the money changing pigs of capitalism...Wonder how much of the ill gotten funds ended up in a PAC for Republi"cons"?

[WhiteTara]

5. Yeah, I heard Phil Gramm's name

being bandied about for Treasury Secretary or some such
nonsense.

[Okieprogie]

6. Bear in mind...

I'm not definding these guys, but all they did was lie to reporters. If this standard was applied to politicians, they would all be in jail.

[lapfog_1]

7. Not at all the same

they reported on false prices for contracts for a commodity that they
trade IN AN EFFORT TO AFFECT THE PRICE of said commodity. Pure and
simple fraud.

It's the same thing as you calling up the wall street journal and
"reporting" that the company you work for is currently under
investigation by the SEC. Meantime you have shorted 100,000 shares
of stock.