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Make Money Online The thousands of Enron employees who saw their 401(k) plans wiped out will be able to take the energy trader to court Monday, following a federal bankruptcy ruling in Manhattan yesterday.

The very decline of Enron stock from more than $90 a share to 50 cents a share in a single year has taken a massive $67 billion of shareholder wealth out of the economy. Many employees and former employees at Enron face meager retirements.

Internet Business Opportunity Lawyers for the current and former employees persuaded the judge to overturn -- on a conditional basis -- a ruling that typically protects bankrupt companies from lawsuits. By doing so, employees who lost collectively more than $1 billion in retirement fund assets are able to proceed with their suit against Enron for breaching its fiduciary responsibility.

Just days before Enron filed for bankruptcy and laid off 4, 000 people, it paid out $55 million in bonuses to about 500 employees, according to several people who had dealings with the company. Yesterday evening, an Enron spokesman confirmed the bonuses, describing them as "retention incentives" for crucial employees. Bankruptcy experts said that the payments were almost certain to be closely scrutinized and probably challenged by Enron's creditors.

Free Money The employee suit, which was filed with a federal court in Houston, claims that Enron and the trustees of the 401(k) plan were aware of questionable company practices, which made Enron stock an inappropriate investment.

Separately, the Labor Department said yesterday that it had opened an investigation into how Enron managed its employees' 401(k) retirement plans. Those accounts were heavily invested in Enron shares, and company rules prohibited many employees from diversifying their holdings. The Labor Department said that employees had lost up to 90 percent of the value of their accounts.

Work At Home Business The employee lawsuit always was scheduled to proceed on Monday. But attorney Ron Kilgard, with the Phoenix law firm of Dalton, Gotto, Samson & Kilgard, told the court that employees feared the Houston judge would postpone the case if Enron couldn't be named as part of the suit.

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Free Online Affiliate Program Kilgard asked Judge Arthur Gonzalez to provide a conditional stay, where Enron could be a named defendant and where scheduling and some discovery proceedings could commence.

Auction Coin Money Paper Martin Dies, a litigator who represented 600 former Enron employees, urged the bankruptcy court yesterday to "grant a stay" so the employees could start court proceedings. "Many have lost their life savings and don't have a job," Dies said.

Franchise Business Opportunity But Enron's attorney said the size and scope of the employee suit would reduce the amount of time and resources it would be able to give to its creditors.

Best Free Online Affiliate An attorney for Milbank Tweed, a Manhattan firm representing the creditors committee, said that "110 percent of Enron's efforts should go to restructuring the company -- for all the creditors. And there are hundreds and thousands of companies." The attorney suggested that this issue be revisited in 120 days.

Blogging Money Thebillivard But Gonzalez agreed with the employees' counsel, saying Enron could be a defendant in the case. The judge also called for the removal of the stay June 21.

Best Home Based Business In other Enron developments, Treasury Department documents obtained by The Associated Press showed that then-Enron chairman Kenneth Lay offered a seat on the company's board in 1999 to Robert Rubin, who was Treasury secretary, and lobbied Rubin and his successor on issues affecting Enron.

Affiliate Marketing Program Rubin did not join Enron's board of directors. Rubin, who left the government in 1999, is chairman of the executive committee of Citigroup Inc., which along with other banks lent hundreds of millions of dollars to Enron, hoping to keep it afloat.

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