If you're trying to gauge Skilling's culpability, it comes down to He said-They said. At least two executives -- and perhaps Baxter as well -- claim that they tried to nip Fastow's shenanigans in the bud. But Skilling claimed to have no recollections, or different recollections, of such accounts.

At issue is whether Skilling knew that the shell partnerships were used to hide Enron's debt, and whether he was responsible for supervising the partnerships. According to the minutes of the May 1, 2000, meeting of the finance committee taken by Enron's corporate secretary (presumably Rebecca Carter, to whom Skilling is now engaged), one of the partnerships discussed in Skilling's presence, Raptor 1, "does not transfer economic risks but transfers P&L" -- profit and loss -- "volatility." This would indicate that the finance committee knew that there was something shady about the partnerships, since a true hedge partnership would transfer both risks and P&L.

Skilling responded that that meeting was confusing. "The particular meeting that you're talking about was in Palm Beach, Florida," he said, "and on the day of the meeting the power had gone out at 3 in the morning, and we were scrambling to get it fixed."

A lawyer whispered something into his ear.

"No, I'm sorry," he said. "Never mind." He laughed -- he was mixing up meetings. "That's incorrect. I take it back." He then offered his answer about these minutes: "I don't recall," he said.

Later he would use the "lights went out" excuse for an October 2000 meeting in which he specifically was identified as having supervisory responsibility for the partnerships, instead of just the Two Dicks and the audit committee, who were identified as having that responsibility the year before.

Before Skilling testified, Energy & Commerce Chairman W. J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-La., introduced at the beginning of the hearing "some good officers in the company who could smell the cancer growing." These included Jordan Mintz, the vice president and general counsel for corporate development first brought to the world's attention by Salon on Jan. 18, and company president and chief operating officer Jeff McMahon.

According to Mintz and McMahon and their contemporaneous notes and memoranda, both men were concerned about Fastow's partnerships and tried to get Skilling to get his protigi, Fastow, to cut it out. According to Skilling, he has no idea what Mintz is talking about, and McMahon's March 2000 meeting with him was hardly about ethical obligations to the shareholders but rather because McMahon wanted to make sure he got paid.

Mintz had provided the committee with approval forms he had written, trying to secure Skilling's signature on partnership transactions -- which Skilling hadn't signed. He was also concerned with language Fastow "used to attract investors that appeared to be selling investors inside information," and whether or not Fastow should have been disclosing his compensation for his work for the partnerships. Mintz reported speaking with Richard Buy and Richard Causey to discuss his reservations about the partnerships. "I wouldn't stick my neck out," Causey said, according to Mintz.

"Both [Causey and Buy] said to me that Jeff was very fond of Andy so 'don't go there,'" Mintz said. He sent memos and had his secretary call twice to schedule meetings with Skilling, calls that went unreturned. Buy and Causey "said 'You tried, and leave it at that,'" Mintz said. He appealed to his boss, senior counsel James Derrick, Jr., but in his cushy office 30 floors above him, Derrick didn't appreciate the "dysfunctionality I experienced on a regular basis" on the 20th floor, where the finance department was headquartered, Mintz said.

"I do not recall being presented with these documents," Skilling later said, when asked about Mintz's myriad attempts to get in touch with him. Deferring to the partnership supervisory rules from October 1999 -- and not the ones from a year later when the lights went out -- Skilling maintained that he didn't need to sign off on the deals, that Buy and Causey, and other controls that were established, would ensure that all was kosher.

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