Enron: Partnerships analyzed
Enron Corp's creditors may be able to recover US$500 million by unraveling six off-books partnerships the energy company set up to help hide debts before it spiraled into bankruptcy, a court-appointed investigator said. Neal Batson, an Atlanta attorney appointed Enron examiner in May by a justice department official, focused on the six partnerships in his initial report on Enron's collapse, filed Saturday in US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Enron used a maze of thousands of partnerships to keep debt of its balance sheet and inflate financial results. Enron raised as much as US$1.4 billion through the partnerships from 1997 through 2001, in what it classified as asset sales, Batson's report said. The deals "had dramatic effects on both the balance sheet and income statement portions of Enron's financial statements," the report said. Accounting experts working for Batson indicated that some sales were backed by Enron's credit, and may have been loans disguised as sales. "If all of these purported sales are recharacterized as loans, then the assets, currently valued in the range of US$500 million, would be" returned to Enron and accessible to help pay creditors, the report states.
Internet: Rogue traders invade
Rogue traders using the Internet to part gullible consumers and their money risk prosecution anywhere in the world, a conference in Australia was told yesterday. Delegates to a three-day international conference of consumer watchdogs linked together in the International Marketing Supervision Network (IMSN) pledged to pursue corrupt salesmen around the globe. IMSN chief Sitesh Bhojani promised that cyberspace afforded no protection to the criminally inclined. "Those businesses that are trying to use the Internet as a medium to commit fraud on societies will not be tolerated by the IMSN," Bhojani said.
Telecoms: Verizon to sell video game
Verizon Wireless Inc will sell services that give customers access to games, ring tones and travel information as the largest US mobile-phone company tries to lift sales amid a subscriber-growth slowdown. Customers of Verizon, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, will be able to download baseball, golf and other games as well as maps and flight information over mobile phones, Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said. The company didn't disclose prices for the new services, which rely on Qualcomm Inc technology and will be available on Motorola Inc phones sold for US$199.99 or US$299.99.
Investment: World Bank lends support
A World Bank agency and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed yesterday to support foreign direct investment (FDI) in Asia through lending and the provision of investment guarantees, a joint statement here said. ADB and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a member of the World Bank Group, "will support joint projects in which one or both will provide investment guarantees, in combination with ADB direct assistance, such as loans or equity investments," the statement said. MIGA executive vice president Motomichi Ikawa said after the Manila signing that the step signals "our commitment to increasing the flows of foreign investment in the region."
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
Suspected Chinese spies posing as Taiwanese tourists have been arrested for allegedly taking photographs of Philippine Coast Guard ships, local media reported. The suspected spies stayed at a resort in Palawan, where from a secluded location they used their phones to record coast guard ships entering and leaving a base, Philippine TV network GMA said on Wednesday. Palawan is near the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) and other disputed areas of the South China Sea, where tensions have been on the rise between China and the Philippines. The suspects allegedly also used drones without permission and installed cameras on coconut trees in the
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