Bill Nelson: “I am a member of the Commerce Committee and we were looking forward to the opportunity of questioning the immediate past…”

“I am a member of the Commerce Committee and we were looking forward to the opportunity of questioning the immediate past CEO of the Enron Corporation today. Unfortunately, he did not appear before the committee as had been expected, and I did not have the chance to pose some questions to him. Specifically, I would have asked about the public institutional investors, like State pension funds, whose retirement funds around this country lost so much money because of their investments in Enron stock. There are more than 20 pension funds--and in the Chair's home State of California there were some 4 or 5 pension funds, not only from cities such as San Francisco, but likewise one of the more major statewide pension funds of California which was the pension fund that was second most in losses as a result of having purchased Enron stock. The specific amount for one California pension fund--and it was just one of about five--was about $145 million. Far exceeding that was the $335 million that was lost as a result of the Florida public retirement system holding Enron stock and finally selling it for 28 cents a share.”