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

Ms. Olson [told] employees in December of '99 to put all of their 401(k) monies into
Enron.... I want to point out that Ms. Olson ... who led the cheering rally there for
Enron stock – two months after she told people to put their money in started to sell
off her stock ....
Hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, 2/26/02. Indeed, Olson
is shown in a 99 videotape encouraging employees to invest all their funds in Enron. "As seen on
the tape ... Cindy Olson [] responded 'absolutely' to a question posed by an employee whether
workers should 'invest all of our 401(k) in Enron stock.'" "SEC Targets Rogue Executives," BBC
News, 2/22/02.
Senators also took note of her actions:
[Senator] Waxman said in his letter to [Senator] Lieberman that the videotape
provides evidence "that seems to conflict with Ms. Olson's testimony that she would
have advised Enron employees to diversify if the law permitted such advice."
"It also appears to cast Ms. Olson's personal financial transactions in a new
light," he wrote. Olson testified that, on the advice of her own financial advisor, she
sold $6.5 million of her Enron stock in an effort to diversify her portfolio. Most of
the stock was sold in late 2000 and early 2001, Olson said. But Waxman pointed out
that Olson sold more than $1 million of Enron stock on Feb. 16, 2000 – less than
three months after the employee meeting.
"Enron Exec.'s Testimony Disputed; Waxman Says Tape Shows Olson Touted Firm's Stock,"
Houston Chron., 2/22/02.
(q.3) Olson, moreover, was capable of understanding the fraud as alleged by
plaintiffs. Before taking over Enron's Human Resources Department, she worked for 15 years as an
accountant and was therefore quite capable of understanding the intricacies of the fraud. See "Did
HR Fuel the Demise of Enron? Jane Lewis Examines the Risk Taking, Entrepreneurial Work
Culture of the Energy Giant and Shows How HR Played a Leading Role," Personnel Today, 3/19/02.
(q.4) Indeed, Olson's employment history at Enron demonstrates she was highly
sophisticated and was able to understand the complex, fraudulent structures created. She had served
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