Enron Pays Out $1.7 billion

Enron Creditors Recovery Corp., the former Enron Corp., said Monday it has made its 18th distribution to creditors, doling out $1.7 billion.

Including the latest payment, the company, which changed its name from Enron in March, has distributed $13.2 billion to creditors since emerging from bankruptcy in 2004.

That's about 36 cents on the dollar of the billions lost when Enron went bankrupt in 2001. The company originally estimated that creditors would get about 17 cents on the dollar.

The increase stems largely from asset sales and gains through bankruptcy-related litigation, including settlements in a so-called "MegaClaims" lawsuit against several banks and brokerages alleged to have helped Enron in the accounting tricks that led to the collapse of the Houston-based company.

So far, nine banks and brokerages, including JPMorgan Chase, Barclay's and Merrill Lynch & Co., have settled that litigation for a total of $971 million. All denied wrongdoing.

Citigroup and Deutsche Bank have not settled the MegaClaims litigation, which is to go to trial in April.