Houston — Former Enron Corp. employees are hawking dozens of company items on Internet auctions, including the embattled company's 64-page code of ethics and a commemorative stock certificate.
Former Enron employee Matt Mitchell is selling one of his two copies of a broadband risk-management manual used by the former energy giant. The document contains tips on increasing creditworthiness and timing of reported earnings.
The manual is among the priciest of more than 100 Enron-related items for sale in eBay auctions.
"It's not entirely deceptive, but it isn't showing what's actually happening," Mitchell said in describing risk-management techniques employees learned from the manual, which he hopes to sell for at least $150.
The auction ends Friday.
Other items for sale on the site range from freebies that Enron gave employees, such as golf balls, baseball hats and paperweights with the company logo.
Enron spokeswoman Karen Denne said former employees could sell Enron artifacts with the company's blessing.
Mitchell, 29, was among hundreds of employees laid off from Enron's money-losing broadband services unit in July last year, six months before 4,500 lost their jobs in December after Enron filed the largest bankruptcy in history. He worked as a sales engineer for Enron for 14 months, consulting with traders who made telecommunications-related trades.
Mitchell found another job for less pay with a small software company in Houston in September and watched his former employer implode in a whirlwind of questionable accounting practices, deflated shares and erosion of investor and trader confidence.
Stock that traded near $80 a year ago was delisted Tuesday from the New York Stock Exchange; the stock has stagnated at less than $1 for weeks.
Mitchell said he thought the risk-management manual might generate a snicker or two and pique interest from some bidders.
He said risk-management techniques used for energy trading were tweaked to apply to broadband in the manuals.
"This was just old information rewritten," Mitchell said.
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