Jordan Mintz

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Enron whistleblower Jordan Mintz was the former Vice President and General Counsel for Corporate Development at Enron Corporation. Mintz began working at Enron in 1997, where he started as Vice President for Tax at Enron North America, formerly Enron Capital and Trade. He became Vice President and General Counsel for Enron Global Finance from October 2000 until November 2001. He now works at Kinder Morgan Energy Partners. ^[1]

[edit] Work as an Enron Whistleblower

Upon moving to the Finance Department, Mintz recognized many problems at Enron and "took matters into his own hands," hiring outside legal counsel to evaluate Enron's business practices.^[2]

Mintz was also known for writing a memo to Andrew Fastow (Chief Financial Officer) in 2000, concerning some "sweetheart" deals in favor of Mr. Fastow three months before Sherron Watkins wrote her memo, raising red flags about the growing number of improperly leveraged partnerships.^[3] In addition to expressing his concerns with Enron's business practices, he also proposed many solutions to fix the problems.^[4]

In 2002, Mintz testified before Congress, explaining that he tried in vain to ensure that Enron's deals were properly vetted by all necessary executives — including former CEO Jeff Skilling.^[5]

On March 28, 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint against Mintz, claiming that he participated in fraud in 2001 by arranging murky disclosures of Enron's repurchase of a money-losing Brazilian power plant from a partnership run by former finance chief Andrew Fastow. Mintz's lawyer, Christopher Mead of Washington, said that Mintz will fight the charges vigorously, reminding reporters:"If you can find anyone at Enron who did more to regulate the relationship between Andy Fastow and Enron, please let me know who that is."^[6]

This complaint by the SEC came as a surprise, since Mintz was praised as a whistleblower and even considered a "hero" by followers of the Enron scandal.^[7] He was also described as a David character standing up to the Goliath of Fastow, and as man for whom right and wrong are as simple to tell apart as black and white.^[8]