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Enron Corp. - University of California | Office of The President

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forecast stronger future revenue and earnings growth. Unfortunately, <strong>Enron</strong>'s actual business<br />

operations were not capable <strong>of</strong> generating such results.<br />

B. Year-End 97 Crisis<br />

9. To make matters worse, in late 97, <strong>Enron</strong> learned that an entity it had established with<br />

an outside investor a few years earlier, Joint Energy Development Incorporated ("JEDI") – and had<br />

done transactions with to generate large amounts <strong>of</strong> the pr<strong>of</strong>its <strong>Enron</strong> had been able to report during<br />

97 – had to be restructured, as the outside investor was going to withdraw from JEDI. This situation<br />

created a crisis for <strong>Enron</strong>'s top insiders. Because <strong>of</strong> the involvement <strong>of</strong> the outside investor in JEDI,<br />

JEDI had been treated as independent <strong>of</strong> <strong>Enron</strong> and had not been consolidated into <strong>Enron</strong>'s financial<br />

statements and results. Thus, <strong>Enron</strong> had been able to engage in transactions with JEDI as an<br />

independent third party, recognize revenue and pr<strong>of</strong>its from those transactions and not carry JEDI's<br />

debt on <strong>Enron</strong>'s books. However, in late 97, unless JEDI could be quickly restructured by having<br />

a new, independent investor come forward, <strong>Enron</strong> would have to wipe out all <strong>of</strong> the pr<strong>of</strong>itable<br />

transactions it had done with JEDI in 97 – 40% <strong>of</strong> that year's pr<strong>of</strong>its – put JEDI's debt on<br />

<strong>Enron</strong>'s balance sheet – some $700 million in debt – and lose the ability to generate pr<strong>of</strong>its from<br />

similar such deals with JEDI or its successor going forward.<br />

10. However, <strong>Enron</strong> could not find a legitimate buyer for the outside investor's interest<br />

in JEDI. So Lay, Skilling and Fastow, with Barclays, Andersen (<strong>Enron</strong>'s accountants) and Vinson<br />

& Elkins (<strong>Enron</strong>'s lawyers) quickly formed a new entity called Chewco, which <strong>Enron</strong> and an <strong>Enron</strong><br />

executive (Michael J. Kopper ("Kopper")) controlled, to buy the outside investor's interest in JEDI.<br />

Chewco did not have an outside equity investor willing to commit a 3% stake – the minimum<br />

required to enable Chewco and JEDI to be treated as an independent third party. Barclays loaned<br />

some $240 million to Chewco, requiring a guarantee from <strong>Enron</strong>, so that Chewco would invest<br />

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