sherron

Enron's whistle blower details:

 In 2001, Enron's most prominent whistle blower Sherron Watkins testifies and described the company was overrun by fraud and she sends an anonymous letter to the founder of Enron, Kenneth Lay warning him and he announced that the company had a problem in the management and we're going to correct.

Watkins, a former vice president at Enron, testified that in mid of 2001 and she began probing Enron's relationship with LJM and was increasingly sounded as it became apparent that the relationship didn't stand up to accounting the careful examination.

She said she stepped up her own efforts to leave the company and she said about the concerns, working for an organization that manipulates the financial statements of the organization but it was taken aback by the sudden departure of then CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

During the cross testing from Skilling attorney Ron Woods late afternoon, she admitted that she had never spoken to Skilling about his job and couldn't attest to why he left out the company.

But she told jurors that Skilling's sudden resignation, while shocking, confirmed her fears that the accounting irregularities she had uncovered.

Watkins said she sent to Lay a detailed memo the day after Skilling's resignation was announced but kept it anonymous until after the entire company's employee meeting.

According to the memo, shown by the government, Watkins outlined the relationship with LJM's Raptors transactions, a series of special financing vehicles used as a hedging tool in which LJM had profited from the investment but retained without risk.

She said the formation of the deals didn't imply a true third party sale and warned Lay that the aggressive accounting would come back and haunt the organization.