POSTED 28/8/06 IN A FULL PAGE ARTICLE IN THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD, REPORTER ANNE GIBSON WAXED POETIC ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT MICHAEL STIASSNY'S VISION IS FOR THE COUNTRY.  THE ARTICLE WAS PROMPTED BY STIASSNY'S WISH TO BE INTERVIEWED NOW THAT THE COMMERCE COMMISSION HAS SIGNALED IT MAY TAKE OVER VECTOR ENERGY (OF WHICH STIASSNY IS CHAIRMAN) AS A RESULT OF OVERCHARGING TO CONSUMERS.   IT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS FROM THE SHORT RESPONSE BELOW WHAT THE ARTICLE WAS EXACTLY ABOUT AND WHY IT WAS WRITTEN. To: Anne Gibson New Zealand Herald  25/8/06 Dear Ms. Gibson, Your article on Stiassny (19 –8 –06) reminded me of Saddam Hussein’s staged photo-op just prior to the war where he held a young boy on his lap in an effort to show his love and compassion.  You fell right into it. You say: This ‘king of business with a conscience’ is concerned for all of us that the pendulum of regulation has swung too far. The reality is, before regulation – and under Stiassny’s stewardship: 1)        Maintenance costs at Vector had increased 35% per year, electricity prices to consumers had increased, company debt soared, and yet Stiassny (no doubt showing what a champion he is of the investors) raised dividends. 2)        Stiassny’s creative – and flatly erroneous – accounting showed he made a whopping $500,000,000 unrealised gain on the purchase of NGC when the independent valuers were evenly split on whether Vector actually had overpaid. 3)        Stiassnys base compensation doubled to $180,000 per year (for this part time position). You say: “If Vector (i.e. Stiassny) loses confidence in the regulatory framework and stops investing, the country could face blackouts.” The REALITY is this is exactly what ENRON threatened, and later artificially created in California – the only U.S. State that did NOT regulate electrical utilities! You say: “Stiassny himself takes credit for championing (minority shareholder) rights” and you accept it as gospel without question, even showing him as the martyr who is trying desperately to cut the red tape. The REALITY is shareholders almost always suffer significantly and unnecessarily in companies that Stiassny targets.  I suggest you enquire of the Institute of Chartered Accountants as to how many shareholders have complained about losing their investments as a result of alleged suspect accounting and overcharging by Stiassny, only to become frustrated by Stiassny hiding behind “confidentiality agreements” he claimed to have with the noteholders as the reason he will not provide financial disclosure. You say: “(Stiassny) played a key role in Air New Zealand’s dispute with its engineers when he was called in as a troubleshooter last year.” The REALITY is Stiassny injected himself into the situation for the purpose of gaining some much needed PR to clean up his tarnished image – resulting from years he raided employee entitlements, as he did in the N Z Stevedoring debacle he ultimately lost in Court. You say: “(Stiassny’s) economic anxieties are the country’s concerns.” Yeah, right! I am sad for you putting your name on this public disservice.  But I am sadder still for the disservice to your children and grandchildren, for it is they who will likely suffer for your failures here.  By then, Stiassny will likely have taken his family and ill-gotten gains to exile in Israel or Switzerland. Sincerely, Vince Siemer, MBA Gulf Harbour

The Smartest Guys in the Room   The Enron comparison in New Zealand scale down page for table

	Similarities are uncanny -- check this out!
		KENNETH LAY (ENRON)	MICHAEL STIASSNY (Vector Energy)
1	Postiion	Chairman	Chairman
2	Industry	Energy company (basic commodity)	Energy company (basic commodity)
3	Claim to fame     (Not to be confused with reality)	quadrupled value of company in 5 years	more than quadrupled value of company in 3 years
4	Education	Business economist	Business accountant / law degree
5	Influence	friend of President Bush	friend of High Court judges
6	Personal reputation	Hired Skilling and Fastow to do the dirty work: famous for his powerful friends who protected him	Hired Fardell and Garrett to do his dirty work: famous for his powerful friends who protected him
7	Business Philosophy	Vocal advocate of deregulation of energy	Vocal advocate of deregulation of energy
8	Vision for company	Revolutionize the industry through broad challenges to the status quo.  Growth through acquisitions will establish company as dominant force and its    methods as leading edge.	Revolutionize the industry through broad challenges to the status quo.  Growth              through acquisitions will establish                company as dominant force and its                methods as leading edge.
9	Personal approach to accounts	Manipulate accounting.  Hide debt off the books and bribe auditors to help cover the scam.	Manipulate accounting.  Claimed he created a HALF BILLION dollar unrealized CAPITAL GAIN from the purchase of NGC alone (just months earlier).
10	Sought brokerage alliances to promote 'buy' recommendations of their company shares	Worked with Merrill Lynch to hide debt and make 'buy' solicitations to prospective sharebuyers. (Four Merrill Lynch executives later convicted)	Worked with Direct Broking (a co. with previous connections to Stiassny) to make 'buy' solicitations to prospective shareholders before prospectus was released.
11	Personal approach to the financial markets	Sought to increase share value by actively hyping esoteric valuation and abstract excuses through the media and public forums.	Sought to increase share value by actively hyping esoteric valuation and abstract market   opportunities through the media and public forums.
12	Favoured growth strategy	Overvaluation of company assets & hiding debt.	Overvaluation of company assets & taking on huge debt.
13	Tactic used when the house of cards started to collapse	Ran rolling power blackouts throughout Callifornia to create artificial power shortage that increased power costs as much as 4,000 percent short term.	Increased dividends to beneficiaries despite   greatly falling profits in successful attempt to       boost sharemarket reception of IPO float. (29.5% profit decline announced after float)
14	Benefit to Chairman	Lay cashed in US$26 Million in stock.	Stiassny's official compensation doubled.  No word yet on how many shares he sold or options he exercised.
15	Benefit to Company	Profit of $2 Billion dollars kept them temporarily afloat	Warm reception by sharebrokers to IPO despite the poor financial performance
16	Cost to Public	$30 Billion dollars to the State of California.  Price of electricity increased 15%.	Massive $3.2 Billion debt remains.  Sharp profit fall despite price of electricity increasing to consumers.
17	Cost to Employees	Pensioners lost $2 Billion.  20,000 employees lost $1.2 Billion in their profit sharing accounts	DON'T KNOW YET
18	Favorite catch phrase	"Ask why."	"Get over it."
19	Fall Guy (and chief facilitator)	Andy Fastow, CFO	Alan Garrett, Stiassny's 'Manager' or Mark Franklin CEO (odds on favourites).  Peter Fredricsen, CFO or Warren Kyd, Chairman of AECT (possible)
20	How far will he go to protect the charade?	Perjury.  Claimed allegations of his corporate deception were an attempt by others to defame and unfairly discredit him.  Later, when the truth was exposed, he claimed ignorance of what was happening at the company on his watch.	Perjury.  Claimed allegations of his corporate deception are an attempt by others to defame and unfairly discredit him.  Has engaged high-priced legal counsel to impose judicial delays to court actions alleging perjury (not the actions one would expect from an innocent man).
21	Defining moment	He and CEO Jeffrey Skilling were cashing in Hundreds of Millions of dollars in shares while they simultaneously advocated in October 2001 that their employees invest more of their hard-earned income in their ENRON profitsharing accounts (that became worthless two months later).	In an Institute of Directors presentation 19 October 2005, Stiassny bragged of how he hyped the shares to "beneficiary grandmothers" and profit opportunities across the Tasman to the media at the same time he contrived a restriction of outlets for sale of IPO shares  - this in order to ensure a successful and profitable float in August 2005 of the shares on the NZX.
22	Talent	Never blinked.  Could sell ice to evacuees of the Titanic (and essentially did) as he bled the company and blamed others.	Utterly ruthless. Is able to tell the most horrific lies with a straight face, but is clever enough to normally get others to do his bidding.  At the same time he could convince whales that Japan only wanted them for research.
23	Most alarming traits	Self-absorbed and largely unaccountable, running the company as if it was his private bank account.  Yet he claims today to be in the dark regarding the debacle.   His approach allowed tragic failure of epic proportions to ensue over many years.	Highly secretive in business affairs, self-absorbed and largely unaccountable.   Invokes numerous 'confidentiality agreements' to prevent transparency and claims outlandish personal accomplishments that have little semblance to reality..  In short, a walking disaster.