Top executives at the huge American energy company Enron are being sued for $25bn.
One of the company's shareholders, the New York-based Amalgamated Bank, alleges that the executives sold millions of shares when they knew the plight of the company.
The Amalgamated Bank of New York is a big shareholder in Enron and so lost many millions of dollars when the share price collapsed on the revelation of previously unknown debts of $13bn.
The bank alleges that executives at the top of Enron knew the true state of affairs and sold their shares before the price collapsed.
Fraud alleged
The bank is suing 29 current and former top Enron executives and board members, including Ken Lay, Enron chairman and chief executive, and Texas Senator Phil Gramm's wife, Wendy Gramm.
The former UK Minister, Lord Wakeham, is one of the non-executive directors of Enron, though there is no suggestion he acted improperly.
The Amalgamated Bank says that Enron was a "grotesque fraud".
Apart from banks and energy companies which had contracts with Enron, the other main losers are the employees, most of whom had to invest in Enron shares as part of their pension.
There is now a mass of litigation under way.
The problem is that Enron has drowned in debt, leaving nothing to pay anybody.
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