Senior officials at the bankrupt energy trader Enron say former Chairman Kenneth Lay and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling were aware that the partnerships being created in the company were posing a financial risk.

The Washington Post, citing Congressional memos, reports Enron officials responsible for risk and accounting said C-E-O Skilling knew more about the partnerships than he acknowledged two weeks ago before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The panel is expected to send Mr. Skilling a letter asking for clarifications of his testimony. Former Enron Chairman Lay, for his part, refused to testify when summoned before Congress, citing his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Enron used the partnerships to shift massive debt off its books, which, when disclosed, caused the firm to file for bankruptcy. Thousands of employees lost jobs and pensions, but top executives cashed out Enron stock for tens of millions of dollars.

Since the Enron debacle, there's been a wave of accounting concerns involving several global firms.

The big European brewer Carlsberg has removed its chief financial officer, after the company violated stock-exchange rules by leaking financial information to analysts. Meanwhile, Russian regulators are looking into the auditing practices of Russia's biggest company, Gazprom. And, news reports say the Frankfurt-based software company Computer Associates International is the target of a federal criminal investigation into its accounting practices, though the firm says it's unaware of any probe.

(wpost, bbg, dj)

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