Enron and AEP Energy Ltd., Stewart Staley

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alexander_Strategy_Group
Excerpt:

Alexander Strategy Group in the K Street Gutter

"Representative Tom DeLay's campaign to get Republicans to dominate Washington lobbying may have worked too well for the Alexander Strategy Group," writes Bloomberg. The lobbying and political strategy firm "has links to no fewer than three of the scandals convulsing the U.S. capital." Alexander Strategy Group (ASG) partner Tony Rudy "is now a focus of the federal investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff." Founder Ed Buckham "set up a South Korea junket for his old boss," DeLay, "that violated ethics rules." Lobbyist Jim Ellis "faces money-laundering charges in Texas along with DeLay." Lastly, ASG represents Group W Advisors, Inc., a defense contractor owned by Brent Wilkes, who "is one of the four un-indicted co-conspirators in a Nov. 28 criminal complaint for allegedly bribing" Representative Cunningham, who pled guilty to graft and resigned from Congress. [5]

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/2008_4493661/commodities-the-business-that-fell-apart-in-housto.html
Excerpt:

COMMODITIES / The business that fell apart in Houston after Enron's 2001 collapse has renewed itself, with a different set of players from before / ENERGY TRADING IS REGAINING ITS VIGOR

TOM FOWLER Staff

Sun 01/13/2008 Houston Chronicle, Section Business, Page 1, 2 STAR Edition

WHEN Citigroup decided to move its energy trading business from New York to Houston in 2004, Stu Staley got an earful from his colleagues and competitors. Houston had been a hub of energy trading in the 1990s thanks to companies like Enron, Dynegy, El Paso and Williams. But the business fell apart with Enron's 2001 bankruptcy.
"They said we were going back in time, that Houston was so yesteryear," said Staley, managing director of Citigroup's Global Commodities Group.
Three years later, the list of banks that have set up energy trading operations in Houston is growing.
Merrill Lynch came to town in 2004, about the same time as Citigroup, with the acquisition of the Entergy-Koch trading business. Bear Stearns went from six people around a Houston conference table in 2006 to more than 220 workers today buying and selling power and natural gas.

http://www.aep.com/environmental/news/?id=873
Excerpt:

AEP EXPANDS EUROPEAN COAL MARKETING CAPABILITIES
WITH ADDITION OF ENRON’S INTERNATIONAL COAL TEAM

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 12, 2001 - AEP Energy Services Ltd., the London-based European wholesale energy marketing and trading subsidiary of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), has acquired existing contracts and hired key staff from the Enron international coal team.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sheila_Jackson_Lee
Excerpt:

Enron campaign contributions

In 1994, Jackson Lee (while serving her third term as a member of the Houston City Council) defeated incumbent Congressman Craig Washington in the Democratic primary for the 18th Congressional District of Texas. Washington had made powerful enemies, namely Houston's downtown power brokers (such as then-Enron Chief Kenneth Lay), by voting against congressional bills favoring NAFTA and NASA. Irked, Lay and other conservatives convinced then Councilwoman Jackson Lee to run against Washington, then put their sizeable deep pockets behind her campaign, despite her being a liberal Democrat. They reportably viewed her as more maleable and "agreeable." [1]
According to Brody Mullins in Congress Daily, "Enron and its employees pumped $24,000 into Jackson Lee's campaign, helping her raise nearly $600,000-three times as much as Washington raised for his previous reelection." (Quoted in PIRG report on Enron). [2]

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Stuart_Staley
Excerpt:
Stuart Staley "is a Managing Director in Citigroup's Global Commodities Group, based in Houston. He is responsible for Citigroup's activities in electricity and natural gas, serving the firm's Global client base.
"Mr. Staley joined Citigroup in May 2004, following two years with AEP Energy Services in London, where he was responsible for the company's European generation, trading and marketing businesses. Prior to joining AEP, Mr. Staley spent six years with Enron in both Houston and London, where he held various positions in Enron's US electricity trading business before building Enron's international coal and freight trading business out of London.
"Mr. Staley graduated from Williams College in 1988 with a B.A. with Honors in Chemistry, and he received an M.B.A. and a Masters degree in Environmental Studies from Yale University in 1995." ^[1]

• Advisory Board, Center for Business and the Environment at Yale ^[2]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/10/citibank-commods-idUSN1018098620100210
Excerpt:
Prior to joining Citi in 2004, Staley was CEO of AEP Energy Ltd in London and worked for Enron for six years in both Houston and London.

http://qn.som.yale.edu/content/financing-future
Excerpt:
Stuart Staley Yale SOM & FES '95, Managing Director & Head of Global Commodities, Citigroup
Stuart Staley is Managing Director, Head of Citi’s Global Commodities Group, and President of Citigroup Energy Inc. Based in London, he is responsible for Citi’s activities in physical and financial commodity products serving the firm’s global client base. Stuart joined Citi in May 2004 before which he spent 2 years with AEP Energy Services Ltd. in London where he served as CEO and was responsible for the company’s European generation, trading and marketing businesses. Prior to this role, Stuart spent 6 years with Enron where he held various positions in the company’s US electricity trading business before building Enron’s international coal and freight trading business out of London.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tony_Rudy
Excerpt:

Guilty Plea

Rudy appeared in federal court in Washington, D.C. March 31, 2006, and pled guilty "in a case stemming from the corruption probe of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, bringing the scandal closer to the door of his one-time boss, Representative Tom DeLay," Bloomberg News reported. ("The case is USA v. Rudy, 06cr82, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.")
Rudy "promised to cooperate with a federal investigation of bribery and lobbying fraud that has so far netted three convictions and prompted calls for ethics reform in Congress," the Associated Press reported. "He faces up to five years in prison, but could receive much less based on the extent of his help with the investigation, U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle told Rudy at a court hearing in Washington."
"Rudy, who resigned as DeLay's deputy chief of staff in 2001, is the first person to plead guilty to charges in the case since Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud charges in January. Michael Scanlon, a former DeLay press secretary who later became a lobbying partner with Abramoff, pleaded guilty to bribing public officials in November," the AP said. "The plea agreement contains no allegations that DeLay, who it describes as Representative 2, did anything wrong."

Influence Peddling

"Investigators are looking into whether Rudy aided Abramoff's lobbying clients while he was working on the Hill, ... and are reviewing payments from Abramoff clients and associates to Liberty Consulting, a political firm founded by Rudy's wife, Lisa. The Washington Post reported [in October 2005] that Rudy, while on DeLay's staff, helped scuttle a bill opposed by eLottery Inc., an Abramoff client, and that Abramoff had eLottery pay a foundation to hire Liberty Consulting," Susan Schmidt and James Grimaldi, reported in the November 26, 2005, Washington Post.

DeLay Loyalist

"[F]ormer Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Rudy, who is now with the Alexander Strategy Group, told National Journal, 'There is a lot of discussion about how we can help Republican candidates and expand the majority.' As for DeLay, Rudy added, 'As long as he wants me, I'll be there for him.' ..." [5]
No list of top Washington lobbyists "is complete without Rudy, lobbyist extraordinaire." [6]

2000 Florida Recount

"Four of Abramoff’s colleagues—all of whom have left Greenberg [Traurig] in the wake of investigations surrounding Abramoff’s activities—were foot soldiers in the Florida recount. Two of them bragged of their recount work on their official online Greenberg biographies, which have since been removed," John Byrne reported in the May 5, 2005, Raw Story.
"Shawn Vasell noted that he was a 'team leader' in Broward and Duval counties in his bio; Duane Gibson was photographed in the acclaimed Brooks Brothers riot of Republican operatives outside the Miami-Dade County polling headquarters; Todd Boulanger boasted of being on the Broward and Duval recount team in his profile. Also on the ground was former DeLay deputy chief of staff Tony Rudy.
"Boulanger drafted a letter DeLay signed urging the Interior Department to favor Abramoff’s client in June 2003—a letter cosigned by the House Republican leadership, including Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO)," Byrne wrote.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/231285/topaz_power_group_to_sell_eagle_pass_power_station_to/
Excerpt:
The Eagle Pass generating facility is located on the Rio Grande River in Eagle Pass, Texas. On July 1, 2004, Topaz Power Group acquired Eagle Pass along with 10 Texas-based power plants, including the 632-MW Coleto Creek Power Plant, from American Electric Power (AEP). Shortly thereafter, Topaz Power Group sold the 254-MW E. S. Joslin Power Station, an inactive generating facility in Calhoun County, Texas.
Riverstone Holdings and The Carlyle Group are the co-general partners of the Carlyle/Riverstone Global Energy and Power Fund II. Riverstone is a New York-based energy and power focused private equity firm founded in 2000. The Carlyle Group is a global private equity firm. Carlyle invests in buyouts, venture, real estate, and leveraged finance in North America, Europe, and Asia.