Add the U.S. Treasury to the long list of institutions launching investigations in the wake of Enron Corp.’s collapse. U.S. regulations that protect investors are being reviewed by the department, Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill said Sunday. O’Neill, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said “it is not clear whether the company fulfilled all of its obligations under the existing rules,” regarding rules that allowed Enron’s management to sell stock while its employees were barred from doing the same thing.

Meanwhile, the Big Five U.S. accounting firms and a trade group have asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require companies to provide more information about transactions not reflected on their balance sheets. Companies would be required to disclose cash, long-term debt and lease obligations under recommendations contained in a letter to the SEC sent by KPMG, Andersen, Deloitte & Touche, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, as well as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

The accountants also want events that could affect a company’s liquidity and capital resources disclosed to investors, including lease provisions and debt arrangements that could trigger credit rating downturns. The letter also suggests more information be required from companies on related parties in a transaction, including the purpose of the arrangement and how the price of the transaction was set.

“While many registrants provide high quality, transparent disclosures, many other public companies boilerplate very high-level disclosures that provide little or no meaningful detail,” the SEC letter said.

On television, O’Neill, who noted that the “dust hasn’t cleared yet on this case,” said that if Enron’s top management did comply with U.S. regulations now in place, “it suggests that we need rule changes. If, on the contrary, it turns out that they did not fully comply…we have a different issue on our hands.” He did not detail what might happen if it was learned that Enron’s management broke any regulations.

Enron employees who were holding Enron stock in their retirement plans were barred from selling any stock for about one-month’s period last fall. The company claimed the plans could not be altered while it changed administrators for the plans, but at the same time, company executives were not barred from selling their stock. During the period the employees were not allowed to move their funds, the company’s stock fell to about $3 a share. It continued to dive before the company declared bankruptcy Dec. 2, and thousands of employees subsequently lost their jobs. On Monday, Enron’s midday stock price on the New York Stock Exchange was $0.68.

“It’s obviously a big and serious story when millions…are economically impacted by the meltdown,” O’Neill said.

Besides the upcoming investigation by the Treasury Department, Enron is also being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor, and at least five congressional committees.

Also on “Meet the Press” Sunday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), said his governmental affairs committee is investigating Enron’s ties to President Bush and his administration. Enron and its Chairman Kenneth Lay were among Bush’s leading campaign contributors during the 2000 election. The committee will begin hearings on Jan. 24.

When asked about specifics, Lieberman said that the focus of the investigation would not be the “first instance on the connection between anybody in the Bush administration and the folks at Enron,” but he said that to do a thorough investigation, “you’ve got to ask that question, certainly, down the road.

Finally, Dynegy Corp., the one-time merger partner of Enron, and other creditors including El Paso Corp., will learn later this week whether their request will be granted to move Enron’s bankruptcy case from New York City to Houston. When Enron filed for bankruptcy in December, it chose New York City instead of Houston, where it is headquartered, much to the protests of several of its creditors.

Judge Arthur Gonzalez, who is overseeing the bankruptcy case in Manhattan, said Monday he will decide by the end of the week where the case will be heard. Enron’s trading unit also is set for auction this week, and bidders had until the end of Monday to submit notice on whether they would make a play for the once mighty unit. Expected to be in the bidding are Citibank and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., two of Enron’s largest creditors.

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