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Enron

This sham corporation, dedicated to Mammon, was headed by a CEO whose close personal friend was President George W Bush. Although Bush denied it in a 2001 interview:

"He was a supporter of Ann Richards in my run in 1994, and she did name him the head of the Governor's Business Council, and I decided to leave him in place just for the sake of continuity. And that's when I first got to know Ken and worked with Ken, and he supported my candidacy."

As a matter of fact, Enron contributed a grand total of $550,000 to Bush over an eight-year period. That made Enron the single largest contributor to Bush's political career.

Enron's ostensible business model involved selling electrical power and energy commodities, and gleaning a percentage from the transactions. Of course, their primary source of income ultimately turned out to be graft.

Timeline

10 Sep 2000 Enron CEO Ken Lay personally contributes $290,000 to George W Bush's presidential campaign.
3 Jan 2001 Enron CEO Ken Lay is named as a member of President George W Bush's transition team.
17 May 2001 Enron CEO Ken Lay meets with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Milken, and 12 other California Republicans at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. There they share (according to Enron emails) "an insider's conversation of what's going on with the energy situation." Later, during his campaign for governor, Schwarzenegger claims he is unable to remember anything about the meeting, including whether he even met Ken Lay.
30 Jun 2001 The White House admits that political adviser Karl Rove was involved in administration energy policy meetings, while at the same time holding stock in energy companies including Enron.
15 Oct 2001 Enron CEO Ken Lay telephones Commerce Secretary Don Evans.
28 Oct 2001 Enron CEO Ken Lay telephones Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.
29 Oct 2001 Enron CEO Ken Lay telephones Commerce Secretary Don Evans, asking him to dissuade Moody's from downgrading Enron's credit rating.
8 Nov 2001 Arthur Andersen receives a federal subpoena for Enron documents.
2 Dec 2001 Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
3 Dec 2001 Enron lays off 4,000 employees.
22 Jan 2002 A former Enron employee testifies that she saw people shredding documents after the investigation was announced.
23 Jan 2002 Enron CEO Ken Lay resigns as CEO.
25 Jan 2002 The body of former Enron vice chairman John Clifford Baxter is found in his car. His suicide note is released in April.
1 Feb 2002 The Department of Justice instructs the White House to preserve any and all Enron documents.
4 Feb 2002 Ken Lay resigns from Enron's board of directors.
17 Jul 2003 Without admitting any wrongdoing, Enron agrees to pay the state of New Jersey $109,000 to settle claims that the corporation had made 30 illegal state campaign contributions in 1999.
9 Apr 2004 At 4:00 a.m., New York police officers responding to a complaint that an emotionally disturbed person was "pulling on people's clothes and shouting aloud with intent to annoy" found themselves face to face with none other than the former Enron CEO, Jeffrey Skilling. Skilling was standing on the corner of Park Avenue and East 73rd Street: highly intoxicated, uncooperative, and making accusations at passers-by. "You're an FBI agent and you're following me," he was reported as shrieking. He ran up to several patrons in a Manhattan bar and "pulled open" their clothes. Police took Skilling to the New York Presbyterian Hospital for observation.

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