Some of Enron Corp's former directors have agreed to a $168 million settlement of a shareholder lawsuit over the collapse of the energy trading company, the lead plaintiff in the case said on Friday. The directors will pay more than $13 million of their own money, while insurance proceeds will cover the remaining $155 million, according to the University of California, the lead plaintiff.
The settlement comes on the heels of an agreement announced Friday by investors in WorldCom Inc., another company felled by an accounting scandal, in which 10 former directors agreed to pay $18 million as part of a $54 million settlement.
A lawyer for many of the former Enron directors did not return a call seeking comment.
Houston-based Enron was the nation's seventh-largest public company by revenue before it spiraled into what was then the largest bankruptcy in American corporate history in December 2001.
No settlement has been reached with several former top Enron executives, including former chairman and chief executive Kenneth Lay, former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling, and former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, the university said.
Other settlements in the case included $222.5 million by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., $69 million by Bank of America Corp and a $40 million settlement that covered Andersen World-wide, the non-US arm of Arthur Andersen, the university said. Arthur Andersen's US arm, which was Enron's auditor, is still a defendant.
Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2001. Its collapse resulted in thousands of lost jobs and billions of dollars of shareholder losses.
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