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Ex-exec says Enron shredded documents this month

Destruction of confidential documents went on at Enron Corp's headquarters until at least two weeks ago despite court orders forbidding this since October, a former company executive said in an interview broadcast on Monday.

"I left the second week of January and the shredding was going on until I left. And I have no idea if it continues." Maureen Castenada, identified by ABC News as a director in the foreign investments section at Enron's Houston headquarters, told the ABC News program.

Enron -- once the world's largest energy trader -- filed for bankruptcy on December 2 in the largest such filing in US history. Its downfall, after rival Dynegy Inc withdrew a rescue takeover bid, threw thousands out of work, wiped out many employees' life savings and hammered investors.

Enron's lawyer, Robert Bennett, said in a statement faxed to Reuters: "We are investigating the reported destruction of documents."

In October, the company issued directives to employees worldwide that all relevant documents should be preserved in light of pending litigation, Bennett said.

"If anyone violated those directives, they will be dealt with appropriately," he added.

Arthur Andersen LLP, the auditor fired by Enron on Thursday, has admitted destroying a "significant but undetermined" number of electronic and paper documents and correspondence relating to the energy trader's audit.

The document destruction by Anderson, which continued after the Securities and Exchange Commission began inquiries into Enron's financial statements in late October, is to be the subject of a hearing by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday.

Castenada said she worked across the hall from an accounting office on the 19th floor of Enron's headquarters, where she said document destruction took place as late as last week.

"After Thanksgiving, there was great interest in the accounting documents stored. They pulled out all the boxes and people had to go through every box," she said.

Castenada showed ABC what she said were some of the shredded documents she discovered in an office hallway. She said she had taken one of many such boxes, basically to use as "packing material."

In televised images of the shreds, the word confidential could be seen along with snippets of financial transactions dated in December. Also visible were references to secret off-the-books partnerships, such as Jedi, believed by investigators to have helped bring Enron down.

William Lerach, a lawyer suing Enron in the case, told ABC: "You just have to conclude based on what we know to date this was a deliberate coordinated effort to destroy evidence.

On Tuesday, he plans to take the shreds to federal court to demand an explanation and ask that all relevant Enron documents be put in the custody of the court, ABC reported.

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