Neil Coulbeck, the bank executive who “authorised the transfer of Enron assets to the investment vehicle operated by the NatWest Three“, found dead in a London park:

Neil Coulbeck (1952 – July 11, 2006) was a banker with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

Coulbeck was Head of Financial Markets for North America with RBS until June 2001, when he returned to London as Head of Group Treasury. He had been questioned by the FBI in relation to the collapse of Enron, which involved the RBS subsidiary, NatWest. He is reported to have been the executive who authorised the transfer of Enron assets to the investment vehicle operated by the NatWest Three, although there was no suggestion that he had profited personally from this transaction.

Coulbeck was found dead in a park in Chingford, London on July 11, 2006, having been reported missing by his family the previous week.

Police, who released a photo of Mr Coulbeck, said they were treating his death as “unexplained”. There is no indication his death is linked to the fraud case
[Wikipedia: Link]

Profile: Neil Coulbeck @ The Guardian

Google: Neil Coulbeck

Naturally, suspicion attaches to the “unexplained” death of a man in Coulbeck’s position. But nothing more than suspicion: let us be investigative, but not conspiratorial.

J. Clifford Baxter

Far more suspicious, to my mind, is the death of J. Clifford Baxter. Wikipedia’s coverage is bland –

John Clifford Baxter (September 27, 1958 – January 25, 2002) was a former Enron Corporation executive who resigned in May 2001. He sold a large quantity of Enron stock during months prior to Enron bankruptcy. Reportedly, Baxter clashed with CEO Jeffrey Skilling over questionable Enron business practices. Before his death, he had agreed to testify before Congress in the Enron case.

Baxter was born in Amityville, New York, and graduated from New York University to join the military, where he became an U.S. Air Force captain from 1980 to 1985. After he left the military, he enrolled at Columbia University, where he received an MBA degree two years later.

On January 25, 2002, Baxter was found dead in his black Mercedes-Benz in Sugar Land, Texas, shot through the right side of his head with “rat-shot.” [Essentially a small shotgun shell sized to fit a handgun, which fires spread pattern useful against rodents and snakes.] A pistol and a suicide note were found in the car. An autopsy was performed by the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office and the death was ruled a suicide.
[Wikipedia: Link]

– but others have published far more damning interpretations:

1. Although the “Manner of Death” on page 1 is given as “suicide,” no effort is made in the autopsy to support that conclusion, and, indeed, there is no supporting evidence for suicide in the autopsy. The conclusion could only have been reached based upon something extraneous to the autopsy.

2. The strongest evidence in the autopsy report is most consistent with murder. Under EVIDENCE OF INJURY on numbered page 3 we find, “The defect is stellate and, when the wound edges are repositiioned, measures 7.2 centimeters in the horizontal direction and 4.5 centimeters in the vertical direction.”

This suggests a wound inflicted by a starburst of rat shot pellets which were far enough from the muzzle of the weapon to have separated from one another by as much as 2.83 inches before striking the head. Who would, or could, shoot themselves in the temple like this? [But see revised conclusions below.]

In the paragraph above the EVIDENCE OF INJURY we read that “The palmar surface of the left hand is remarkable for an irregular, red, recent abrasion occurring at the base of the fifth digit, which measures 1/4 inch along the linear axis. There is an irregular abrasion on the palmar surface of the distal phalanx of the fifth digit, which measures 1.5 centimeters. This injury consists of discontinuous superficial abrasions with a trail of black material.”

Such an injury, though very slight, is not consistent with Baxter having shot himself while seated in his car. Rather, it suggests that he had recently fallen to his left (consistent with being shot in the right temple) and attempted to break to fall by extending his left hand, perhaps on an asphalt road. The black material should have been tested to see what it is, but apparently it was not.

…

Another argument against suicide is the choice of ratshot as the ammo in the gun. In the sort of home Baxter was able to afford to live in, one does not go hunting rats with guns loaded with ratshot; one hires an exterminator. In addition, rat shot is the perfect murder ammunition, because unlike a solid bullet, there is no ballistics test that can match rat shot or snake shot to the gun that fired it.

There are other problems with this autopsy report.

There were shards of glass found on his shirt, on what would have been over the superior RIGHT shoulder, following the removal of his shirt. What was the source of this glass?

Baxter had Ambien–which is given for sleep–in his stomach and in his blood. That means he had taken it very recently; Ambien works very fast; peak levels are usually at about 1.5 hours. Is it likely that someone would take a sleeping pill and then immediately drive somewhere to kill themselves. Why take a sleeping pill if you are going to kill yourself? Ambien is pretty powerful; you don’t get in a car to drive someplace.

The abrasions/lacerations of Baxter’s hands take on a new meaning when you consider the unexplained glass shards on his superior right shoulder clothing. This suggests a struggle.

Baxter’s body was found on 01/25/2002. The specimens were received at the lab on 01/26/2002. The date of the autopsy report is 01/25/2002 (the day BEFORE the lab specimens were delivered), but the autopsy was not notarized until 02/15/2002. It was signed by Dr. Carter on 01/31/2002. Dr. Carter indicated very quickly to the press that it was a suicide, yet did not sign the report until 01/31/2002. There are no initials or indications regarding the processing of the report; no dictation or transcription dates, or transcriptionists initials.

…

Latest from DC Dave — A consensus of informed readers’ comments is in, and I now believe that the large irregular entrance wound is very likely to have been made by the discharge from a pistol muzzle pressed firmly against Cliff Baxter’s temple, not by a weapon held a foot or two away. As one reader pointed out, there’s a good chance that rat shot would not even penetrate the skull unless the gun were pressed up against the head. Moreover, when it is pressed up against the head the expanded gases between the scalp and the skull quite often cause a star-shaped (stellate) blow-out of the scalp, similar to the one described in the autopsy.

Readers have also asked some other questions which may or may not have good answers such as why the clothes were wet, why was the body barefooted yet the feet were clean, where were his shoes, why weren’t the hands bagged for protection, why there is nothing said about the condition of the right hand, and why Baxter had taken a powerful and fast-acting sleeping pill if he was planning to go driving somewhere and kill himself.

[What Really Happened: Link (includes images of autopsy report)]

I suppose it’s possible that Baxter took Ambien to dull the pain of shooting himself. Or, while deranged by Ambien, he decided impulsively to take his own life. Possible, but unlikely.

Baxter was a family man, reportedly happy. He had a straight-arrow career including service in the Air Force. He was a millionaire many times over — he’d sold his Enron stock for $30 million.

He was in a position to know a great deal about Enron’s financial crimes, and was reported to have quit because “something was funny” at Enron.

He was reported, shortly before his death, to have considered getting a bodyguard.

Immediately after his death, CNN reported that Congressional investigators had planned to quiz Baxter:

Congressional investigators planned to interview Cliff Baxter next week and had the impression from Baxter’s lawyer that he would cooperate, according to a congressional source.

As late as Friday morning, investigators with the House Energy and Commerce Committee spoke with Baxter’s attorneys, another source on the committee said. Apparently, neither the investigators nor Baxter’s lawyers were aware that he had killed himself.

The congressional source said committee members believed that the former Enron vice chairman was “a bit player, not a big fish in the frying pan.”

This source said “someone told us he (Baxter) had information that would be useful.”

A source said House committee investigators wanted to talk with Baxter because his name was mentioned in an eight-page letter written last summer by Enron whistle-blower, Sherron Watkins.

In that letter to then-Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay, Watkins said Baxter had been complaining about Enron’s business partnership with a company called LJM.

“Cliff Baxter complained mightily to (then-Enron President and CEO Jeff) Skilling and all who would listen about the inappropriateness of our transactions with LJM,” Watkins wrote.

“Baxter was high enough up that he could have known something,” said the congressional source.

The committee had “suspicions” that Baxter left Enron in May of 2001 because he thought “something was funny” at Enron and “wanted out,” said the source.

[CNN: Link]

Smells like murder and coverup to me.

Ken Lay

I assume that Ken Lay died of a heart attack — old guy under tremendous stress, these things happen.