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April 29, 2004
Enron Task Force blinks, enters into new plea deal with Lea Fastow
This Chronicle article reports that Lea Fastow, wife of ex-Enron CFO Andrew Fastow, was charged with a misdemeanor tax count today and is scheduled to plead guilty at a new arraignment next Thursday. Previouwly subject to a six counts of felony tax fraud charges, the Enron Task Force superseded Mrs. Fastow's indictment today with one count of willfully delivering a fraudulent 2000 tax form to the IRS. Although this action was widely anticipated after U.S. District Judge David Hittner declined to approve a prior plea bargain, it is nevertheless an unusual step for prosecutors and greatly reduces Mrs. Fastow's exposure to a long prison term. The maximum prison sentence for the misdemeanor is 12 months, although it is expected that the Task Force will ask Judge Hittner to sentence Mrs. Fastow to a lesser sentence than the maximum.
With Mr. Fastow already having agreed to a plea deal and cooperating with them, the Enron Task Force had no desire wasting time on Mrs. Fastow 's trial when they have bigger cases pending, particularly the six-defendant Nigerian barge trial starting June 7 in front of U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein.
Posted by Tom at April 29, 2004 4:46 PM
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