Alliance Capital And The Enron Shares

Alliance Capital is one of America's largest money-management companies and Alfred Harrison was one of it's top stock pickers with a very successful track record investing for Alliance Capital's clients.

Yet as the news of Enron's troubles grew almost daily late last year, Mr Harrison continued to invest in the company on behalf of the Florida state pension fund. He is even believed to have purchased 1.3m Enron shares just two weeks before the corporate filed for bankruptcy.

The pension fund are now looking at a loss of some $328m on their Enron share purchases.

State investigators are believed to be currently seeking an explanation for Mr Harrison's actions which, in hindsight, appear difficult to justify.

Investigators will also look at the role, if any, of Frank Savage, who sat on both the Alliance Capital and Enron boards at the time of the share purchases.