The collapse of Enron didn't affect public employees' pensions in Kansas as much as in some states, but it has wiped out more than $1 million in investments, state officials said Friday.
Glenn Deck, executive director of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, said the pension fund owns about 82,000 shares of Enron stock, which it purchased for about $1.2 million. The stock now is worth about $25,000, he said.
"Most of the value is gone," Deck said.
But Deck said the loss won't seriously hurt the state pension fund, which has assets of more than $9 billion. He said Kansas' loss is small compared to states such as Florida, which lost $300 million in retirement funds.
Deck said he really didn't have a reason why KPERS wasn't more heavily invested in Enron. The fund hires money managers and they bought and sold Enron stock over the years, he said. In fact, some years, the pension fund made money off Enron stock, Deck said, though he didn't know how much.
Deck said he expected Kansas would join any class-action lawsuit filed against Enron but would not be a lead plaintiff.
"We want to get back everything we can possibly get," he said.
Attorneys general in several states have asked a federal judge to make them lead plaintiffs in investors' securities fraud litigation. Kansas Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall has not decided as of yet whether to join that effort, a spokesman said.
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