Exemption Won in 1997 Set Stage for Enron Woes: on an broad exemption to the Investment Company Act which allowed Enron to setup the numerous foreign affiliated companies which have played a part in muddying their finances.
Enron's initial efforts in 1996 to persuade Congress to change the law were thwarted by opposition from a powerful trade group and some federal regulators. The company responded by hiring the former boss of a leading staff official at the Securities and Exchange Commission to represent it in negotiations with the agency. In an unheralded five-paragraph order in March 1997, the S.E.C. official, Barry P. Barbash, gave Enron's foreign operations a broad exemption from the law -- the Investment Company Act of 1940.
to refresh your memory...http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/23/business/23EXEM.html