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CNN Live Event/Special

Sherron Watkins' Opening Statements

Aired February 26, 2002 - 09:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Sherron Watkins, we understand, is being sworn in down in Washington, in front of the Senate committee that is going to hear testimony on the Enron situation today. This could arguably the be the best day yet in the Enron story, because she is going to seated at the table along with Mr. McMahon and Jeffrey Skilling. Miss Watkins of course the woman who raised some of the initial concerns about some of the off-the-book partnerships.

Let's listen to the statement she's reading.

SHERRON WATKINS, FMR. ENRON EXECUTIVE: In mid-to-late June of 2001, I went to work directly for Mr. Fastow, assisting in the corporate development work that had recently been put under his supervision upon the resignation of Cliff Baxter in May of 2001.

I worked for Mr. Fastow in this new role until August of 2001. I have since be reassigned into the human resources group with a variety of roles.

While working for Mr. Fastow in 2001, I was charged with reviewing all assets that Enron considered for sale, and determining the likely economic impact of a sale. As part of the sale analysis, I reviewed the estimated book values and market values of each asset.

A number of assets were hedged with an entity called Raptor. Any asset that was hedged should, for the most part, have a locked in sales value for Enron, meaning that despite current market prices, Enron should realize the hedge price that it held with Raptor. It was my understanding that the Raptor special purpose entities were owned by LJM, the partnership run by Mr. Fastow. In completing my work...

CAFFERTY: You're listening to the opening statements by one of the witnesses before the Senate committee investigating Enron today, Sherron Watkins. This is sort of a perfunctory set of remarks. Each of the witnesses will probably read one. The good stuff will come later when the senators begin to ask questions, because among others, at the hearing Miss Watkins and Mr. Skilling have widely divergent views on who knew what about the activities in the company. And so while it's not the Senate's expressed purpose to point up discrepancy in the two tales that Watkins and Skilling will unravel today, nevertheless the discrepancies will probably show up on their own and could make for some interesting viewing.

Of course CNN will be on the story at if unfolds all day. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com