Enron And Peoples Energy: Passing Gas Under The Covers

By Sam Bakken in News on May 12, 2005 8:18PM

Already in trouble with Lisa Madigan, the City of Chicago and the Citizen's Utility Board for allegedly inflating prices during the winter of 2000-2001, Peoples Energy Corp admitted this week that they'd also turned over at least 1 million documents related to the company's dealings with Enron to federal officials in February. During that winter, consumers' bills doubled and tripled and Enron supplied Peoples' gas at that time. [Insert your very own flatulence joke here.]

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission asked for every note, e-mail message, memo, trading record, computer file and contract that mentioned Enron. According to a Peoples spokesperson these records were the same that were turned over to the city and state lawyers for their suits accusing Peoples of making a shady deal with Enron. Court documents allege that Peoples knowingly paid inflated prices for the gas, passed the cost onto their customers, then received cash rewards later on through other companies.

While the accusations aren't exactly news because the state has been on it for months, Peoples not announcing the federal subpoena until now is. Corporations are required to file with the SEC when any significant changes or events occur within the company in which their investors may have some reasonable interest. When Madigan subpoenaed the records last year, Peoples filed that information. This year when the feds got involved, they didn't. Apparently the law regarding what information warrants an SEC filing isn't exactly clear. But still, if it's the same information, why not err on the side of transparency?