Former Enron Corp. chief financial officer Raymond M. Bowen Jr. agreed to pay $500,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that he violated antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws.
The SEC charged Bowen with knowing of a scheme to manipulate and report false and misleading financial results, including the overvaluation of Enron’s “merchant” investments in energy and technology companies, while he served as managing director of Enron North America and co-head of its commercial transactions group.
In its complaint, the commission accused Bowen of being aware that certain assets were hedged by Enron’s infamous special purpose entities and that he knew, or was reckless in not knowing, that the SPEs did not
provide a true economic hedge but were being used to manipulate Enron’s financial statements.
Bowen became Enron’s treasurer in 2001 after Andrew Fastow was forced to resign his CFO post and other finance executives were promoted, according to the Houston Chronicle. He became CFO in 2002, succeeding Jeffrey McMahon, who was promoted to president.
He resigned the positions of CFO and treasurer in October 2004.
In addition to the half-million-dollar payment, Bowen agreed to be barred from acting as an officer or director of a public company for five years. Under the agreement, Bowen neither admitted nor denied the SEC allegations; he faces no criminal charges.
“Ray is glad to have this behind him,” said his attorney, Philip Khinda, according to the Chronicle. “He is proud to have served the company so well during its turnaround in bankruptcy.”