The US Congress is to launch a fourth inquiry into the 'troubling' collapse of Texas-based energy giant Enron and the 'ripple effects' its bankruptcy has had on its workers, customers and the US economy.
Announcing the probe at a press conference last night, Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Senate's Governmental Affairs committee, questioned whether the US government could have done more to protect those affected by the collapse.
Lieberman said the 'untimely and wholly unexpected' demise of Enron 'is an alarm call, a wake-up call to all of us in government to make sure that we're doing everything we can to protect the integrity of our markets and the savings and investments of the American people.'
He vowed that the inquiry would be a 'search for the truth, not a witch hunt.' The panel's first hearing on the matter is scheduled for January 24, one day after Congress reconvenes from its winter recess.
'Something was very rotten in the state of Enron,' Democratic Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, added at the conference.
Levin said his subcommittee - which will be issuing document subpoenas to Enron's top brass, directors and auditors within a week - would first investigate Enron's board of directors, looking into the 'appropriateness of the actions that the board took preceding and during the collapse.'
Enron has promised to cooperate with the investigations. The firm's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December marked the largest bankruptcy filing of a US corporation.
Enron's troubles began after it revealed that it had been keeping financial losses - incurred in relationships with private partnerships run by some of its own corporate officers - off its balance sheet.
