Daniel Scotto (September 14, 1952- July 10, 2018) was an American

financial analyst A financial analyst is a professional, undertaking financial analysis for external or internal clients as a core feature of the job. The role may specifically be titled securities analyst, research analyst, equity analyst, investment analyst, ...

. In August 2001, as an analyst with BNP Paribas, Scotto downgraded

Enron Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional compani ...

securities from "Buy" to "Neutral". He took this action four months before the Enron accounting scandal was revealed that led to the company's bankruptcy. Scotto claims that he was fired due to this decision, a claim that is disputed by BNP Paribas.

Biography

Scotto had previously spent the better part of three decades researching, analyzing and issuing reports on the Utility Industry. He worked at Standard & Poor’s in the Corporate Bond Rating division, with primary analytical responsibilities to assign bond ratings to electric, gas and telephone industries. From 1982-1988, Scotto served as Director of Corporate Bond Research for L. F. Rothschild and head of its utility analytical team. Mr. Scotto then moved to

Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) was a U.S. investment bank founded by William H. Donaldson, Richard Jenrette, and Dan Lufkin in 1959. Its businesses included securities underwriting; sales and trading; investment and merchant banking; fina ...

(DLJ) where he was Director of High Grade and High Yield Corporate Bond research until 1994, and was then recruited by

Bear Stearns The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was a New York-based global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession, and was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The comp ...

as Managing Director of High Grade, High Yield, and Emerging Market Research as well as Senior Electric Utility analyst. In April 2000, Mr. Scotto moved to BNP Paribas as Director of U.S. High Grade Research and Senior Utility Analyst. Following the Enron report released while at BNP Paribas and his subsequent firing, in 2002 Mr. Scotto founded Whitehall Financial Advisors LLC to offer independent research, forensic financial analysis, consulting services to corporate clients, institutional investors and State and Federal legislators. Scotto sponsored several landmark conferences dealing with Structural changes in the

Electric Utility An electric utility is a company in the electric power industry (often a public utility) that engages in electricity generation and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. The electrical utility industry is a major pr ...

Industry. Scotto also has extensive investment banking project experience – having served as the Senior Regulator/Company negotiator when the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) acquired

Long Island Lighting Company The Long Island Lighting Company, or LILCO "lil-co" was an electrical power company and natural gas utility for the communities of Long Island, New York, serving 2.7 million people in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens Counties. ...

(LILCO). The list of other Investment Banking assignments also includes Western Resources “re-profiling,” restructuring of Tucson Electric, and representing Sale-Lease Back Bondholders (SLOB) in the bankruptcy of

El Paso Electric El Paso Electric is a Texas-based public utility company, engaging in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in west Texas and southern New Mexico. Its energy sources consist of nuclear fuel, natural gas, purchased power, so ...

. Daniel Scotto has been indoctrinated into

Beta Gamma Sigma Beta Gamma Sigma () is the International Business Honor Society. Founded in 1913 at the University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois and the University of California, it has over 980,000 members, selected from more than 600 collegiate chapters i ...

by Pace University as the 2008 Honoree for exemplifying the ideals of

. Establishing Mr. Scotto’s public credentials in the timeframe leading up to the Enron affair,

Institutional Investor Magazine ''Institutional Investor'' magazine is a periodical published by Euromoney Institutional Investor. It was founded in 1967 by Gilbert E. Kaplan. A separate international edition of the magazine was established in 1976 for readers in Europe and Asia ...

published an article about him. They stated: “Investors are grateful to Scotto for consistently steering them clear of regions where the movement to disaggregate is well advanced.” He died on July 10, 2018, in Virginia.

References

;Notes
Feature Article on Dan Scotto in The Wall Street Journal January 29, 2002
*https://web.archive.org/web/20070404031521/http://archive.pulp.tc/electric_perfect_storm.pdf New York's Perfect Storm An Industry in Crisis:The Financial Condition of Electric Generating Companies in New York State *Infrastructure and Financial Markets Review (page 9) March 200

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scotto, Daniel Living people Enron American financial analysts Chief investment officers 1952 births