Washington ? Enron Corp.’s former chief executive told a skeptical House subcommittee Thursday that he was unaware of financial problems at the company when he left four months before it collapsed, a position contradicted by two senior Enron executives who testified they repeatedly warned him about conflicts of interest that enriched insiders.

“I did not believe the company was in any financial peril,” said Jeffrey Skilling, who testified under oath after Andrew Fastow, the company’s onetime chief financial officer, and three other senior executives cited their Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions.

Skilling, who resigned unexpectedly last Aug. 14, said he was unaware that Fastow and other Enron officials collected more than $40 million from off-the-books partnerships whose failure last fall led to the company’s collapse.

Jeffrey McMahon, a former Enron treasurer, and Jordan Mintz, a senior attorney, testified that they had tried to tell Skilling their concerns that the partnerships benefited Fastow and others, not Enron.

Skilling firmly denied knowing about any wrongdoing or efforts to conceal Enron’s losses from investors.

“I was not aware of any financing arrangements designed to conceal liabilities or inflate profitability,” he said in his opening statement to the House panel. “The financial statements issued by Enron, as far as I knew, accurately reflected the financial condition of the company.”

But Skilling frequently responded, under questioning, that he could not recall being present at crucial meetings or events that lawmakers said foreshadowed Enron’s demise.

Rep. James Greenwood, R-Pa., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations, was unconvinced by Skilling’s portrayal.

“A massive earthquake struck Enron right after your departure,” Greenwood said. “People in far inferior positions to you could see the cracks in the walls, feel the tremors … And you want us to believe that you sat there in your office and had no clue that this place was about to collapse?”

The most dramatic moment during Skilling’s three-hour appearance with two Enron directors came when he described a long visit at his home by his “best friend,” J. Clifford Baxter, Enron’s former vice chairman, a week before Baxter committed suicide last month. He said Baxter was heartbroken and upset that his reputation had been ruined by the avalanche of bad publicity over the company’s collapse.

Asked whether Baxter had expressed concern to him about the partnerships, Skilling said Baxter had raised the issue early last year. “He and Andy had a very strained personal relationship,” Skilling said of his friend and Fastow. “He said, ‘I don’t think you should be doing anything for Andy Fastow.’ “

Skilling is the most prominent former Enron executive to answer questions from Congress, which is investigating the reasons behind the company’s demise.

In testimony before Skilling’s appearance, Enron lawyer Mintz said he wrote memos to executives outlining his qualms about the partnerships, calling them “sweetheart deals.”

McMahon, now Enron’s president, told lawmakers that he met with Skilling in the spring of 2000 to complain that some of the firm’s partnerships were riddled with conflicts of interest. He said two Enron executives in particular, Fastow and Michael Kopper  who also refused to testify Thursday  had financial stakes in the deals that compromised their allegiance to the company.