California's GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Denies He Did Busines With Enron

By Jason Leopold

Bill Simon, California's GOP gubernatorial candidate, is either a liar, just plain stupid or both. Despite the extensive business dealings Simon had with Enron Corp. while he was a member of Hanover Compressor's board of directors, he told the Los Angeles Times in an interview recently that he never engaged in any business dealings with Enron. Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Times took his word for it. A quick search of Hanover Compressor's Security and Exchange Commission filings from 1997 through 1999 lists Enron's stake in Hanover, the joint-venture projects between the two companies and Simon's signature on those filings. Did Simon mean that he personally did not do business with Enron? It's hard to tell because Simon has not been forthcoming about his relationship with Enron, which is being investigated by the federal government for allegedly manipulating California's power market and accounting scandals. Enron filed for bankruptcy in December. One of Enron's partnerships at the center of the federal probe, Joint Energy Development Investments, or JEDI, was Hanover's largest shareholder. Simon was a member of Hanover's board in 1995 when JEDI invested heavily in Hanover, an energy company founded by his father, William Simon, Sr. There's no doubt that Simon was involved in intimate business transactions with Enron, which makes me wonder whether he really is stupid and therefore unfit to serve as governor of California. Still, there's no excuse for lazy reporting and the Los Angeles Times has done an injustice by failing to disclose to its readers Simon's ties to Enron as highlighted in the SEC filings.