By
THE ASSOCIATED PRESSPublished: July 30, 2008
A former top executive of Enron is paying $31.5 million to settle charges that he used inside information to profit illegally from sales of thousands of shares of company stock in 2001, federal regulators said Tuesday.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission said the deal with Lou L. Pai, who was chairman and chief executive of the fallen company’s retail energy unit, Enron Energy Services, is one of the largest ever with an individual on accusations of illegal insider trading.
The settlement includes a $1.5 million civil fine and $30 million in restitution plus interest. The S.E.C. gave Mr. Pai credit for $6 million due him under his insurance policy as a company officer that he previously forfeited as a payment to Enron shareholders in a class-action lawsuit. He agreed to pay the remaining $25.5 million into a fund administered by the S.E.C. for injured Enron shareholders.
Mr. Pai neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in settling the civil suit, which was filed by the S.E.C. in federal court in Houston. In its suit, the S.E.C. said that from May 18 to June 7, 2001, Mr. Pai sold 338,897 shares of Enron stock and exercised Enron stock options that put an additional 572,818 shares on the open market. He made the sales after receiving confidential information regarding problems at the division, according to the S.E.C.