Charging

Several banks filed a lawsuit this week charging that through a series of multi-billion dollar loans over a nine-year period, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citibank and Salomon Smith Barney helped Enron Corp. complete the largest fraud in U.S. corporate history. The plaintiffs are seeking more than $201 million in actual damages and unspecified punitive damages.

Charging the Bush administration with pushing federal actions that favor a large political contributor, environmental groups have attacked the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plan to open up a two counties, Otero and Sierra, in southern New Mexico to oil and gas drilling.

Charging the Bush administration with pushing federal actions that favor a large political contributor, environmental groups have attacked the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plan to open up a two counties, Otero and Sierra, in southern New Mexico to oil and gas drilling.

On the grounds of First Amendment rights and charging that the information sought is “overly broad” and “confidential,” McGraw-Hill filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that seeks to quash subpoenas for natural gas price data supplied to the publisher by the Williams Cos.’ energy trading unit.

On the grounds of First Amendment rights and charging that the information sought is “overly broad” and “confidential,” McGraw-Hill filed a motion with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California that seeks to quash subpoenas for natural gas price data supplied to the publisher by the Williams Cos.’ energy trading unit.

Southern California Water Co. and a Washington State public utility district (PUD) are charging that “one or possibly two” FERC commissioners may have violated the federal agency’s rules against ex parte communications by participating in a conference call with Wall Street analysts in which the commissioners apparently addressed pending challenges to power contracts entered into with power suppliers.

Several small gas marketing companies are part of a class action lawsuit seeking treble damages totaling $5.2 billion from NiSource subsidiary Columbia Gas Transmission and two affiliates. Cite alleged antitrust violations starting in February 1996 and continuing today, the marketing companies claim they were forced out of the secondary market for gas storage capacity by a secret scheme involving Columbia’s parking and lending service.

A class action lawsuit seeking treble damages totaling $5.2 billion has been filed by several small gas marketing companies against NiSource subsidiary Columbia Gas Transmission and two affiliates for antitrust violations starting in February 1996 and continuing today involving an alleged gas storage scheme in the Northeast.

Instead of charging a fee for using its new electronic trading system, the New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Nymex) plans to pay traders for creating liquidity. Under the terms of the program, any participant who makes a bid or offer on the Nymex ClearPort network that is subsequently accepted will receive payment in lieu of an exchange fee.