Ex-Enron exec J. Clifford Baxter suicides out
Posted: Friday, January 25th, 2002 11:54 pmHOUSTON — A former Enron Corp. executive who challenged the company’s questionable financial practices and resigned last May was found shot to death in a car today, an apparent suicide, authorities said.
Police in the suburb, Sugar Land, confirmed the death of 43-year-old J. Clifford Baxter, a former Enron vice chairman. …
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Baxter was vice chairman of Enron when he resigned in May 2001, several months before the energy company’s collapse.
Baxter was identified by name in the explosive warning that Enron executive Sherron Watkins wrote last August to company chairman Ken Lay.
“Cliff Baxter complained mightily to (then-CEO Jeff) Skilling and all who would listen about the inappropriateness of our transactions with LJM,” one of the partnerships that kept hundreds of millions of dollars in debt off Enron’s books.
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Baxter was one of 29 former and current Enron executives and board members named as defendants in a federal lawsuit. Plaintiffs’ lawyers said the executives made $1.1 billion by selling Enron stock between October 1998 and November 2001.
It said Baxter had sold 577,436 shares for $35.2 million.
At the time his resignation was announced … his primary reason for resigning was to spend more time with his family. … Read full obituary
