Retirement Funds Take On Enron

December 12, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The lengthy list of Enron suits continued to expand yesterday, as the $96 billion Florida Retirement System said it would file a class-action suit before the deadline of December 21.

According to Dow Jones, the Florida Retirement System owns 9.6 million Enron shares, most of which were purchased in the last 18 months, and now faces hundreds of millions of dollars in losses in the wake of Enron’s fall. Still, the total loss is a small percentage of the total assets of the fund.

On the same day, the Archdiocese Of Milwaukee Supporting Fund joined a motion by union-owned Amalgamated Bank to freeze the assets of Enron’s executives, which the fund alleges engaged in insider trading (see Union-Owned Bank Seeks Freeze of Enron Exec Accounts ).

The fund has already sued Enron on behalf of purchasers of publicly traded debt securities of Enron during October 19, 1998 to November 19, 2001, inclusive.

Also joining the fray was JP Morgan Chase – one of Enron’s biggest creditorsm, who has now sued the beleaguered energy trader for more than $2.1 billion. The bank claims that it has rights to Enron assets such as accounts receivable, commercial paper, cash, and other property, which allegedly are not protected in Enron’s bankruptcy proceedings.

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