The documents, including bank statements and canceled checks, come from the files of something called SONR #1 Limited Partnership, an entity run by Kopper and jointly owned by Kopper and his domestic partner, William Dodson. SONR was set up as a vehicle through which Kopper managed Chewco, yet another partnership, formed by Enron. The Feds allege (and Kopper admits) that Chewco generated large questionable returns to Kopper and Dodson and made dubious payments to Enron chief financial officer Andrew Fastow and his family. The documents show that Kopper wrote himself a monthly $1,500 check for SONR’s office rent, even though it appears that SONR had no office of its own. Also, according to the documents, in 1999 and 2000 Kopper wrote SONR checks totaling nearly $220,000 to cover tax liabilities incurred by his partner, Dodson; he also wrote smaller checks to cover his own tax liabilities. (Some investigators say that tax reimbursements to business executives are sometimes legitimate, and that some of the tax payments made to Dodson and Kopper were approved in writing by Enron.) The documents also show that Lea W. Fastow, wife of Andrew Fastow, periodically received $9,000 fees from SONR for “consulting support” and “account management”; an investigation by Enron’s board of directors concluded, however, that there was “little” management work for the SONR partnership to do. (Another document shows that when Kopper left Enron in July of last year, the company gave him a severance payment of $905,000.)
Lawyers for Kopper and Dodson declined to comment. A spokesman for the Fastows also declined to comment. Sources familiar with the multiple continuing investigations of Enron–by the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress–say that Kopper’s guilty plea clearly indicates that Fastow, his mentor and superior at Enron, is a major focus of continuing interest for investigators. Whether investigators are any closer to proving any knowledge of or involvement in illegal corporate shenanigans on the parts of former Enron chairman Ken Lay and CEO Jeffrey Skilling is far less clear. Neither of the top Enron execs’ names figure in the government’s case against Kopper, and sources say that government prosecutors have not informed Skilling that he is a target of the ongoing criminal investigation. A lawyer for Skilling had no comment, and Lay’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.
