MSNBC Breaking: Former top Enron accountant pleads guilty to securities...

[sabra]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10620117/

Former top Enron accountant pleads guilty
Richard Causey will help prosecutors' case against ex-bosses Lay, Skilling

BREAKING NEWS

HOUSTON - Former top Enron Corp. accountant Richard Causey pleaded guilty to securities fraud Wednesday and agreed to help pursue convictions against Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

Lay, Skilling and Causey were scheduled to be tried together Jan. 17 on conspiracy, fraud and other charges related to the scandal-ridden company’s collapse more than four years ago. The deal leaves Lay and Skilling with another opponent rather than an ally who has been part of their united defense front since the trio was first indicted last year.

Causey will serve seven years in prison and forfeit $1.25 million to the government, according to the plea deal. However, if the government is happy with his cooperation, prosecutors can ask that his sentence be reduced to five years.

Edit: added more details

[wakeme2008]

1. Kenny Boy is looking none too happy these days

:evilgrin:

[NanceGreggs]

2. Yeah, he's probably crying ...

... like Nancy Kerrigan right about now!

[racaulk]

3. I just love how Causey...

...totally threw Lay and Skilling under the bus to save his own ass. Classic! I hope he helps to nail those f*ckers to the wall and send them away for a long time!

And what's up with with Causey forfeiting $1.25 million to the government????? Here's a better idea: why not give it to the Enron investors that were defrauded? Or to the Enron and Arthur Andersen employees that lost their pensions and jobs?

[corporate_mike]

5. it always happens

eom

[TechBear_Seattle]

15. "Causey Covers Keister!" n/t

:hide:

[BOSSHOG]

4. Prosecutorial Terrorism sucks

doesn't it kenny boy and the skilling you rode in on. And ain't it sweet that IF WE DO IT RIGHT, republicans will have to carry this burden throughout the 2006 election cycle! Thanks kenny boy!

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

6. Time to confiscate a couple passports

After all, they wouldn't want Lay and Skilling to abscond to an anonymous tropical island right now.... (or would they?)

[Roland99]

7. If he's getting 7 years and he cooperated....

Don't drop the soap, Kenny-Boy!!

[MrPrax]

8. Too bad...

I guess the government's case against what stands to be one of the largest fraud in history is so weak, they need to make deals.

I saw Munich yesterday and was taken aback by the presentation of moral ambiguity in regards to murder and revenge.(yeah..it's a Spielberg film...controversial subject matter done as uninspired pedestrian filmmaking)

I am wondering if there would be the same moral ambiguity, if, say, the peoples' whose lives were utterly destroyed, hunted these creatures down and killed them...especially the ones that bragged and laughed in taped conversations about ripping off widows in California.

Wonder what message that would send to executives responsible for other peoples' money and livelihoods...probably a much better message than 'plea bargain' or the message that if it gets too bad, "I can always get used to living in a sunny tax haven with no extradition laws".

[Fridays Child]

9. This is great news! Turning on co-conspirators seems to be in fashion!

Yippee!!!

[Tight_rope]

10. After Ken Lay falls Tom DeLay will follow.

[GrumpyGreg]

11. No honor among thieves.eh? Why am I not surprised.

[Jim__]

12. Causey is the one they wanted - n/t

[catmandu57]

13. This screw has turned slow

The only good thing about how it has drug out, is that it will be fresh in the voters mind next year.

[DemonFighterLives]

14. His lawyer was saying that it doesn't mean cooperation

but that Causey will tell the truth.
Earlier the news was playing him up as such a Christian and the neighbor saying he didn't believe he was guilty of anything.
I wonder how long this deluded Christian was prepared to cover for kenny boy.
These holier than thou pugs kill me. :banghead:

A true Christian would tell all and be sorry for his transgressions.

[rainbow4321]

16. The charged, the convicted, the acquitted and the guilty in the Enron scan

Below is a snippit...much longer lists at link

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8EPGA7GF.html


Here is a list of the indicted, the convicted, the acquitted, the overturned, the settlements and those who have pleaded guilty since the Enron scandal erupted in December 2001:
AWAITING TRIAL:
_Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling. Trial to begin Jan. 30 with jury selection, delayed because of former top accountant Richard Causey's 11th-hour decision to plead guilty and cooperate with the government. Skilling faces 35 counts, including fraud, conspiracy and insider trading, on charges connected to various alleged schemes to fool investors into believing Enron was financially healthy so they could pocket millions from sales of inflated stock. Lay faces seven counts of fraud and conspiracy on allegations of perpetuating the ruse upon Skilling's resignation in mid-August 2001, less than three months before Enron crumbled into bankruptcy. Both have pleaded not guilty.
<snip>

CONVICTED AT TRIAL:
_November 2004, four former Merrill Lynch & Co. executives and a former Enron finance executive, conspiracy and fraud. Jurors determined former Merrill executives Daniel Bayly, James A. Brown, Robert S. Furst and William Fuhs and former Enron executive Dan Boyle conspired to pass off a loan from Merrill as a sale of three power barges moored off the coast of Nigeria in late 1999.
<snip>

ACQUITTED AT TRIAL:
_November 2004, former in-house Enron accountant Sheila Kahanek. Prosecutors presented jurors with many heavily incriminating e-mails and documents that tied the convicted five to the deal, but lacked such a paper trail leading to Kahanek. Most prosecution witnesses focused on Kahanek, but several acknowledged deeper involvement in the deal and had obtained immunity deals in exchange for testifying. Some also corroborated Kahanek's account of opposing any guarantees of a buyback or a pre-determined investment return.