Records detail knowledge of Enron partnerships

? Minutes of Enron board meetings show that chairman Ken Lay and other directors had detailed information over a period of years about the complex partnerships that kept hundreds of millions of dollars in debt off the company’s balance sheet.

One of the directors who is now assessing responsibility for the partnership arrangements, Herbert Winokur, himself attended many of the meetings where the partnerships were discussed, according to the minutes.

The Associated Press obtained minutes of eight board meetings from late 1997 to mid-2000 that reflect extended discussion of the partnerships. That could make it difficult for Lay to say that he was unaware of the off-the-books arrangements when the ex-Enron chairman testifies to Congress next week.

Lay’s wife said in a recent TV interview that “there’s some things” her husband wasn’t told about the partnerships.

The minutes, obtained from a source outside Enron, are a sampling of what several people who have read hundreds of pages of the company’s minutes say are a larger number of discussions about the partnerships.

“There are definitely other meetings where the partnerships were gone over in detail,” said one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

At a finance committee meeting on Aug. 7, 2000, Enron’s treasurer “presented a schedule describing the vehicles the company was using to manage its balance sheet debt.” Lay was not at that meeting.