A key executive of the bankrupt Enron energy trading company says two top company officials were swindlers who fooled former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay about the firm's questionable dealings and deepening financial crisis.

Speaking to a U.S. House of Representatives panel Tuesday, Sherron Watkins said former Enron officials Jeffrey Skilling and Andrew Fastow intimidated people into accepting off-the-books partnerships that concealed Enron's massive debt.

Ms. Watkins also disputed testimony by Mr. Skilling last week in which he said he was unaware the partnerships were aimed at hiding debt and inflating profit.

Mr. Skilling's lawyers have dismissed Ms. Watkins' testimony, saying it is based on hearsay and rumor. Ms. Watkins was Enron's vice president for corporate development.

Ms. Watkins also told the House panel she was highly alarmed last August by information she received about Enron's finances. The company filed for bankruptcy a few months later. Ms. Watkins told lawmakers she warned then-Chairman Kenneth Lay that investors were being misled by inflated profit statements. She said she never heard reassuring statements from her superiors to counter her concerns.

Several former Enron executives have frustrated lawmakers in the past two weeks by invoking their constitutional right against self-incrimination and refusing to answer questions when subpoenaed to appear at congressional hearings.

Several panels are investigating the rapid descent of the nation's seventh-largest company into bankruptcy, eliminating the retirement savings of many of its workers while executives cashed out their stock options for tens of millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, the shattered energy trading company has fired its top two accounting officers in a disciplinary action.

(CR Tate, AP, Wash Post, PREV)

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