Barclays sings top Enron traders

TWO leading traders from the British arm of bankrupt energy firm Enron are to join Barclays Capital. But they will not be allowed to trade with the bank's money.

Joe Gold and Richard Lewis were in charge of trading energy and gas at Enron until the firm collapsed in December. Sources at Barclays said the pair were likely to recruit up to 20 former colleagues to Barclays.

Barclays said Gold will be in charge of continental European trading, while Lewis will head a UK-only operation. Enron dominated trading in electricity and gas in Britain and was involved in more than a quarter of all deals, according to rivals.

One former Enron Europe director said: 'The trading business Joe and Richard were running was highly successful.' However, documents filed at Companies House show that in the year to mid-2000, Enron Europe went from having net assets of £41m to liabilities of £341m. The company could be described as a 'going concern' only thanks to a letter from Enron Corp, its parent company in the US, promising to pay any debts as they fell due.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers, administrator to Enron's European operations, said the company owed at least £1.4bn. This figure is expected to multiply when energy trading contracts are unwound.