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An Enron Task Force-induced nightmare ends
So, the Fifth Circuit followed the instructions of the U.S. Supreme Court and finally directed the U.S. District Court in Houston to dismiss all remaining charges against former Enron Broadband executive, Scott Yeager. The appellate court's order effectively ends...
The thin line of business criminality
In this earlier post regarding former Enron Broadband CFO Kevin Howard's recent plea deal, I predicted that the factual basis for the plea deal would barely describe wrongdoing, much less criminality. Turns out I was right. Check out paragraph...
Chalk up another trial penalty deal
With no valid case against former Enron Broadband CFO Kevin Howard, what was the Department of Justice to do? Rattle the saber of the trial penalty and cut a deal. On one hand, the deal appears to be an...
Hedging the Enron trial penalty
On the heels of this news, and given the mainstream media's ubiquitous characterization of Enron as the harbinger of the current Wall Street financial crisis, it's really not surprising that former Enron Broadband co-CEO Joe Hirko opted to cop...
Look at what Mary Flood has been reading
Chronicle legal reporter Mary Flood covered many of the Enron-related criminal trials, so it was only natural for her to pick up a copy of former Enron Task Force prosecutor, law professor and current Oregon attorney general candidate John...
The subprime mortgage criminal lottery
Well, well, well. Look who is resurfacing in connection with the creation of the Justice Department's latest criminal Task Force to investigate whether crimes were committed when the subprime-mortgage market collapsed (just what we need -- another corporate crime...
The DOJ loses another Enron criminal case
As expected, the Fifth Circuit denied the government's appeal yesterday of U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore's decision to vacate the final count of the government's odious five count conviction against former Enron Broadband CFO Kevin Howard. The Fifth Circuit's decision...
Another Enron Task Force alum rings the bell
Fresh off his victory in the Joseph Nacchio trial, former Enron Task Force prosecutor Cliff Stricklin is the latest former Enron Task Force prosecutor to land a cush job at a big firm. Sean Berkowitz and Andrew Weissmann, among other...
The rotting Enron criminal prosecutions
You won't read about it much in the mainstream media, but the Enron-related criminal prosecutions increasingly smell like a rotting carcass. After Jeff Skilling was lynched by an angry mob, most of the mainstream business media moved on to other...
The DOJ's bumbling Enron Broadband case
As noted here and here, the Enron Broadband trials were not the Enron Task Force's finest hour. Now that the Task Force has been disbanded, Justice Department attorneys are left to pick up the pieces of the Task Force's shattered...
Talk about a misleading P.R. campaign
Get a load of this press release (hat tip Ellen Podgor) from the Department of Justice heralding the five year anniversary of the DOJ's Corporate Fraud Task Force. Here is the press release's description of the Task Force's accomplishments in...
The influence of junk evidence on juries
What do the juries in the Conrad Black , Dr. William Hurwitz and the Enron-related criminal trials have in common? In response to the verdict in Lord Black's trial, Professor Bainbridge observed that the result appeared to be a "compromise"...
The embarrassment that is the Enron Task Force
Remember when the Wall Street Journal characterized the Enron Task Force as having "a good record overall?" Well, the latest development in that "good record" is that the Department of Justice Criminal Division -- the successor to the disassembled Task...
Enronizing the Nacchio trial
Peter Lattman notes this Jeff Smith/Rocky Mountain News article on Cliff Stricklin, the former Enron Task Force prosecutor who is gearing up as lead prosecutor in the upcoming criminal trial in Denver of Joseph Naccio, the former Qwest CEO. Naccio...
DOJ throws in the towel on appealing the Fifth Circuit's Nigerian Barge decision
The Chronicle's Kristen Hays reports on the news that was bubbling through the Houston legal community on Thursday afternoon -- the Department of Justice has decided not to mount an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of the Fifth Circuit...
Judge Gilmore vacates Kevin Howard's conviction
As predicted in this prior post, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore this afternoon vacated the conviction of former Enron Broadband executive Kevin Howard (prior posts here) on five counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, and falsifying books and records. A copy...
Reacting to Gladwell's Enron article
It's been a week now since Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker article on the injustice of the case against Jeff Skilling. One of the more revealing reactions to the article resulted from a question that Gladwell posed in this blog post...
The injustice of the Jeff Skilling case
In a few days, unless the Fifth Circuit grants his motion to remain free on bond pending appeal of his conviction, Jeff Skilling will report to prison to begin serving a 24-year prison sentence. The image of Skilling entering that...
The Enron Task Force's next loss
This earlier post highlighted the Enron Task Force's extraordinary concession regarding the invalidity of four of five counts upon which the the conviction of former Enron Broadband executive Kevin Howard was based. As noted in that post, the Task Force...
The Enron Task Force's extraordinary admission
Flying somewhat beneath the radar screen of the lynch mob that is fascinated with watching former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling imprisoned for the rest of his life is the case of former Enron Broadband executive, Kevin Howard. As you may...
What Skilling was really sentenced for
Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling was sentenced on Monday to spend most of the rest of his life in prison for causing Enron's bankruptcy and resulting loss to investors. However, Skilling was neither prosecuted nor convicted for that crime. Skilling...
More ripples from the Fifth Circuit's Nigerian Barge decision
Amidst the publicity on the Andy Fastow sentence and the upcoming sentencing hearing of Jeff Skilling, the legal wrangling related to the conviction of former Enron Broadband executive Kevin Howard (previous posts here) has been flying somewhat under the radar...
Lay and Skilling's legacy of beneficial risk-taking
During the criminal trial of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, attorney Paul Fisher and economist Jim Johnston of the Heartland Institute authored this piece (see also here) regarding the unjust prosecution Lay and Skilling that echos a common theme of...
The drift of the Nacchio prosecution
This Denver Post article reports on the appointment of former Enron Task Force prosecutor Cliff Stricklin as the lead prosecutor in the Justice Department's criminal case against former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio on insider trading charges. Stricklin was a member...
The WSJ said what about the Enron Task Force?
The Wall Street Journal has had a spotty record in covering the corporate scandals that emanated from the stock market bubble of the late 1990's, as noted earlier here, here and here in regard to its coverage of the Enron...
Harmless error?
This previous post passed along the motion of former Enron Broadband executive Kevin Howard's motion for new trial based on serious allegations of juror misconduct and ex parte communications between the trial judge and the jury during deliberations (previous posts...
Rumblings from the jury room of the first Enron Broadband retrial
As noted in this earlier post, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore's decision to conduct the re-trial of former Enron Broadband executives Kevin Howard and Michael Krautz during the latter stages of the media-saturated Lay-Skilling trial was highly prejudicial to Howard...
Enron Broadband jury splits the baby
The jury in the first re-trial of the Enron Broadband case that ended in a mess of acquittals and a mistrial last year convicted former EBS CFO Kevin Howard (picture on the left) this afternoon on all five counts --...
Closing arguments in the first Enron Broadband re-trial
Inasmuch as I had a couple of hearings yesterday in federal court, I was able to slip in and watch most of the closing arguments of the Enron Task Force's case against former EBS CFO Kevin Howard (picture on the...
First Enron Broadband re-trial goes to the jury today
Almost ignored amidst the media's unprecedented focus on the Lay-Skilling trial, the first re-trial in the Enron Broadband case will go to the jury today after the prosecution and defense attorneys complete their closing arguments, which are expected to last...
Lay-Skilling, Week Sixteen
Week Sixteen (prior week summaries here) of the corporate criminal case of the decade was closing argument week, and the lawyers used the full 12 hours over two and a half days that U.S. District Judge Sim Lake allocated for...
Judge Gilmore blasts the Fifth Circuit
Don't expect U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore to be sending any holiday greeting cards to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals any time soon. In this unusually candid recusal order, Judge Gilmore accuses the appellate court of making an untrue...
Lay-Skilling, Week Fifteen
Week 15 of the corporate criminal case of the decade (previous weeks summary posts here) was the relative calm before the final battle of closing arguments next week. Although there was a skirmish over the Ostrich jury instruction, the lull...
Anything for a conviction
As noted here yesterday, the Enron Task Force refused Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling's request to have the prosecution recommend to U.S. District Judge Sim Lake that half-a-dozen former high-level Enron executives who have declined to testify during the trial...
First Enron Broadband re-trial begins today
The three-month trial last year of five former Enron Broadband Services (nicknamed "EBS") executives on fraud and insider trading charges ended in a disastrous mix of acquittals and a mistrial for the Enron Task Force. So, this time around, U.S....
Enron point and counterpoint
As former Enron chairman and CEO Ken Lay prepares to take the stand today in Week Thirteen of the corporate criminal case of the decade, I wanted to pass along an interesting exchange of posts from this past week. This...
The Great Waste
As noted earlier here, I was able to attend the Lay-Skilling trial for several hours on a couple of afternoons this past week. As I watched Jeff Skilling defend himself against criminal charges amidst the overwhelming societal bias that exists...
Lay-Skilling, Week Eleven
Week Eleven of the corporate criminal case of the decade (previous week summaries here) was the Jeff Skilling Week, and the former Enron CEO did not disappoint. In over three and a half days of direct examination (of which I...
Lay-Skilling, Week Ten
After only one week of the defense's case and the tenth week of trial (prior week summaries here), it has become clearer than ever that the Enron Task Force's prosecution of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling...
Lay-Skilling, Week Nine
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake declared "Spring Break" at the conclusion of a short Week Nine of the criminal trial of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling as the prosecution concluded its case-in-chief and the Lay-Skilling team...
More on the risk of going for the cheap score
Remember Kevin Hannon? He is the former Enron Broadband executive whose testimony was the subject of this earlier post on the risk for the Enron Task Force of attempting to score points with the jury by eliciting seemingly helpful testimony...
Lay-Skilling, Week Seven
As the seventh week (earlier week summaries here) of the epic corporate criminal trial of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling drew to a close, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake gave the lawyers and the jurors an...
Be careful what you ask on re-direct
As predicted yesterday, the media frenzy over former Enron CFO Andy Fastow's testimony relegated the previous Enron Task Force witness -- former Enron Broadband chief operating officer Kevin Hannon -- to obscurity rather quickly. However, before leaving the stand, the...
The risk of going for the cheap score
Former Enron Broadband chief operating officer Kevin Hannon will finish his testimony today in the trial of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling. Most likely, with the testimony of former Enron CFO Andy Fastow to follow, Hannon's...
Lay-Skilling, Week Five
The pace of the Enron Task Force's legacy case against former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling continued to pick up pace during its fifth week (earlier weekly summary posts here), but that quicker pace is highlighting an...
Lay-Skilling, Week Four
Long trials tend to settle into a rhythm, and the criminal trial against former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling is no exception. After four weeks of trial, the prosecution has put on three substantive witnesses. Each one...
Lay-Skilling, Week Three
The glacial pace of the criminal trial of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling quickened this week, as former Enron Broadband CEO Ken Rice finished his testimony after not quite three days on the stand. Although the...
"That you didn't really mean it is why we want to use it"
Even though most of the action is in the courtroom during the ongoing trial of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, a few interesting tidbits still arise from time to time on the docket of the case....
Week Three Lay-Skilling trial schedule
As second week of the criminal trial of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling comes to a lumbering close, the beginning of the third week will bring a new witness and renewed interest in the trial. My...
Lay-Skilling, Week Two
At the outset of the criminal trial of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, the Enron Task Force prosecutors estimated that it would take nine weeks to put on its case-in-chief against the defendants. Inasmuch as that...
The second Lay-Skilling prosecution witness
The NY Times Alexei Barrionuevo, who is writing some of the best background pieces in connection with the criminal trial of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, profiles former Enron Broadband CEO Ken Rice today, who is...
Week Two Lay-Skilling trial schedule
After a slumbering close to Week One of the criminal trial of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, the prosecution will almost certainly attempt to pick up the pace of the trial this week. The prosecution will...
Lay-Skilling, Week One
So, week one of the Lay-Skilling trial is in the books. Let's review what we've learned. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake handles matters faster than the prosecutors and the defense attorneys do. Opening arguments are too long. The key evidentiary...
The long slog begins
Former Enron investor relations chief Mark Koenig led off the prosecution's presentation of evidence yesterday in the criminal trial of his former bosses, Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, and it quickly became clear that the Enron Task Force's boring approach...
Lay-Skilling, Round One
Well, I wasn't able to put other pressing matters aside to attend opening arguments yesterday in the criminal trial of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, but I did score a transcript yesterday evening and was able...
Are you ready to rumble?
To the surprise of no one who has ever tried a case before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake, a jury was empaneled yesterday (NY Times article here) in the Enron Task Force's legacy case against former key Enron executives Ken...
The key evidentiary issue in the Lay-Skilling case
The Chronicle's Mary Flood leads today with this timely article on the key evidentiary issue in the upcoming criminal trial of top Enron executives, Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling -- to what extent the prosecution will be able to get...
Profiting from criminalizing business
Andrew Weissmann, the former head of the Enron Task Force who stepped down last year at the conclusion of the Task Force's disastrous Enron Broadband trial, is joining the New York office of law firm Jenner & Block where he...
And in this corner . . .
Although not as well-known as John Emshwiller of the Wall Street Journal and Kurt Eichenwald of the NY Times when it comes to covering the Enron scandal, Carrie Johnson of the Washington Post has been doing some of the best...
The drift of the Lay-Skilling case
As noted earlier here, the clear drift over the past several weeks of the Enron Task Force's case against former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling has been toward the charges relating to alleged misleading disclosure of material...
Causey still not on Task Force's witness list
The Chronicle's Mary Flood reports that former Enron chief accountant Richard Causey, who pled guilty to a single count of securities fraud last week under an plea deal in which he agreed to serve seven years in prison, is still...
The high price of asserting innocence
Last week, former Enron chief accountant Richard Causey pled guilty to a single count of securities fraud and agreed to a seven-year prison term after vigorously defending himself from multiple charges of business crimes for over two years. Had he...
More Enron indictments on the way?
As anticipated in this earlier post, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake concluded in a hearing yesterday that the defense team of former key Enron executives Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Richard Causey had not established in his mind that prosecutorial...
Lay-Skilling-Causey witness intimidation allegations scheduled for hearing
This Mary Flood/Chronicle article reports that U.S. District Judge Sim Lake has scheduled a hearing in the Enron Task Force's legacy case against former key Enron executives Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Richard Causey over the defendants' allegations that the...
Where it first does not succeed, the Enron Task Force tries, tries again
The Chronicle's Mary Flood reports in this article that the Enron Task Force has obtained three "streamlined" indictments against the five former Enron Broadband executives who were the subject of the previous failed Task Force prosecution over the same subject...
Thinking about the Enron legacy case
It is currently the calm before the storm that will be the trial of the legacy case of the Enron Task Force -- that is, the criminal trial of former Enron executives Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Richard Causey that...
Finessing witness intimidation
When Don Corleone wanted to intimidate someone, he would "make them an offer that they could not refuse." Taking a page from the Don's book, when the Enron Task Force wants to intimidate a favorable defense witness from testifying in...
Criminal case against former Duke Energy traders goes to trial
It's not as sexy as some of the Enron-related criminal trials, but the trial of two former Duke Energy natural gas traders began in Houston federal court yesterday. Former Duke traders Timothy Kramer and Todd Reid face racketeering, conspiracy, wire...
More on criminalizing risk-taking
Robert Weisberg is Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law and director of the Criminal Justice Center at Stanford University, where he teaches a course on white collar crime with David Mills, who is a senior lecturer there. In this...
A Judge challenges the Enron Task Force's bludgeoning of a plea bargain
A frequent topic on this blog has been the unjust nature of the government's questionable tactic of bludgeoning business executives into plea bargains by playing on the executive's fear of a draconian prison sentence (often an effective life sentence) if...
2006 -- The Enron Trial Year
Over four years after Enron's descent into bankruptcy, 2006 is shaping up as the year of the Enron criminal trials. First, in mid-January, the trial of the Enron Task Force's legacy Enron case -- i.e., the trial that everyone will...
Judge Lake's letter-writing campaign
In a hearing yesterday afternoon in Houston federal court, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake continued to grapple with strong evidence that the Enron Task Force has engaged in a systematic campaign of intimidating witnesses in the upcoming trial of former...
Judge examining Lay-Skilling witness tampering charges
Following on this post from earlier this summer, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake gave his strongest indication to date that he is prepared to take action against the Enron Task Force's strategy to deny former Enron chairman Ken Lay, former...
The Enron Task Force attempts to muzzle Sherron Watkins
When the Task Force fingered the record number of 114 co-conspirators in their legacy case against former Enron chairman Ken Lay, former CEO Jeff Skilling and former chief accountant Richard Causey, the Task Force effectively ensured that most defense witnesses...
Criminalizing statements that perpetuate a myth
Regulation FD requires full disclosure of securities issuers’ communications with analysts for the supposed purpose of protecting the hypothetical ordinary investor. It's one of those regulations that sounds good on the surface, but fails miserably in practice. The truth is...
More thoughts on the Merrill Lynch defendants' Nigerian Barge appeal
Having tended to my "day" job at the end of last week, I wanted to pass along some further thoughts on the lively discussion that erupted between Vic Fleischer, Larry Ribstein, other commentators, and me last week in regard to...
The Merrill Lynch defendants appeal in the Nigerian Barge case - criminalization of business run amok
The Enron-related Nigerian Barge case has been a frequent topic on this blog as a prime example of the Justice Department's dubious criminalization of common business practices in the post-Enron era. As a result of that questionable policy, four former...
The Chron interviews outgoing Enron Task Force Director
The Chronicle's Mary Flood, who has done a fine job of covering the Enron case for the local newspaper, interviews Andrew Weissmann, the former Enron Task Force director who resigned as director of the Task Force this past week amidst...
A crushing defeat for the Enron Task Force
In yet another stunning blow in a series of setbacks to the Enron Task Force, the jury in the Enron Broadband trial returned late this afternoon and advised U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore that they had acquitted three of the...
Weissman steps down as Enron Task Force chief
In a development that is intriguing by its timing, Andrew Weissmann is resigning as director of the Justice Department's Enron Task Force, reportedly to enter private practice, although that report has not been confirmed. Another Task Force prosecutor -- Sean...
More on the Enron Broadband trial closing arguments
Following on this post from earlier this week on the closing arguments in the Enron Broadband trial, a Clear Thinkers reader offered the comments below on the closing arguments, a transcript of which is downloadable here (the pdf file is...
Another Enron plea bargain
On the day that the jury in the Enron Broadband trial began deliberations, the Enron Task Force announced that Christopher Calger, a former executive with Enron North America, had pleaded guilty to a criminal conspiracy count and agreed to cooperate...
Final arguments in Enron Broadband trial
The Chronicle's Mary Flood -- who has done a fine job as the Chron's primary reporter on both the Enron-related Nigerian Barge trial and the ongoing Enron Broadband trial -- files this report on the final arguments in the latter...
More misconduct by the Enron Task Force?
As this Chronicle article reports, the evidentiary phase of the Enron Broadband trial closed on Friday as the prosecution rested after putting on a thankfully short rebuttal case that lasted less than a day in a trial that just finished...
The end is in sight in the Enron Broadband trial
After three often tortuous months, the end is finally in sight for the Enron Broadband trial, the Chronicle's Mary Flood reports today. The last of the five defendants to testify -- former Enron Broadband Services CFO, Kevin Howard -- took...
Is the prosecution engaging in witness tampering in the Skilling - Lay criminal case?
I was at the Federal Courthouse yesterday for a late morning hearing and decided to stick around and pop into an early afternoon status conference in the government's biggest Enron-related criminal case -- that is, the case against former Enron...
Meanwhile, checking in on the Enron Broadband trial
With the Scrushy trial out of the way, those interested in the criminalization of business are now focusing on the Enron Broadband trial, which is slogging through its eleventh week. Houston Chronicle Enron reporter Mary Flood battles through the chloroforming...
Observations on the Tyco verdict
The morning brings several interesting obserations regarding yesterday's guilty verdict in the trial of former Tyco International, Ltd. executives, L. Dennis Kozlowski and former Tyco finance chief Mark H. Swartz. Over at Conglomerate, Professor Hurt (a former Houstonian, by the...
More on the Sihpol acquittal
The Sihpol acquittal from last week has generated much needed criticism of the demagogic ways of New York AG Eliot Spitzer, including this Wall Street Journal ($) editorial the day after the acquittal. While the WSJ editorial rightly criticizes Mr....
First Enron Broadband defendant testifies
On the heels of the dramatic testimony that occurred late last week, this Chronicle article reports that Rex Shelby, former senior vice president of engineering and operations for Enron Broadband, yesterday became the first of the five defendants in the...
A foul odor emanates from the Enron Broadband trial
Following on the heels of this post from yesterday, the slumbering Enron Broadband trial was jolted Friday as Lawrence Ciscon -- a former Enron Broadband systems engineer who the Enron Task Force has fingered as a target of its ongoing...
When "Justice" destroys good reputations
The Sihpol acquittal yesterday focuses attention on an important aspect of the current wave of criminalizing merely questionable business transactions -- that is, the government's destruction of good reputations in its quest to obtain convictions and prevent juries from hearing...
Prosecution rests in the Enron Broadband trial
The prosecution rested Wednesday in the Enron Broadband trial, about five weeks after the beginning of the trial. Here are previous posts on the trial. The trial has been a strange one. Looking like a tap-in for the prosecution at...
The Chronicle makes a point about DeLay that it failed to make about Enron
A good, old-fashioned snit between Texas political opponents gave the Houston Chronicle an opportunity this week to make a good point about the rule of law and the integrity of governmental investigations. But in so doing, the Chronicle highlighted its...
Juror rebellion brewing in Enron Broadband case
As noted in this previous post, the Enron Broadband trial -- after some early fireworks -- has really turned into a snoozer. And, according to this Chronicle article, the jurors are close to open rebellion: Initially, lawyers for both sides...
Would you please pass the coffee?
This earlier post noted that, after some early sparks, the ongoing criminal trial of the Enron Broadband case has not exactly been a toe-tapper. In that regard, the Wall Street Journal passes along the following exchange that took place earlier...
Couldn't you arrange for some false testimony or something?
After last week's fireworks in the ongoing Enron Broadband criminal trial noted here and here, the Chronicle's Mary Flood reports that the attorneys in the trial have reverted to the dubious tactic of chloroforming the jury with mind-numbing techno-jargon: On...
"You guys scare me to death"
Following this development from Monday, the Enron Task Force prosecution is now clearly in serious damage control mode in the ongoing criminal trial against five former Enron Broadband Services executives in Houston federal court. As this Mary Flood Houston Chronicle...
Checking in on the Enron Broadband trial
An interesting development occurred last Friday during the ongoing Enron Broadband trial, and the development is turning into the first genuine problem for the Enron Task Force prosecution based on Mary Flood's report of today's testimony. Here's what happened on...
Did Skilling violate the Rule?
In what appears to be a questionable ruling, former Enron CEO and COO Jeff Skilling was required to leave the courtroom on Friday morning during the ongoing trial of the Enron Broadband trial. Normally, at the commencement of most trials,...
The Enron Broadband Trial
Almost three and a half years after Enron collapsed into bankruptcy, the first criminal trial involving exclusively former Enron executives will crank up in front of U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore in Houston federal court on Monday. Here is the...
Enron-related developments
The Chronicle's Mary Flood, who continues to do a bang up job of keeping up with the unfolding events relating to the various aspects of the Enron scandal, has a couple of Enron-related news items today. First, she reports that...
Juror Questionnaire in the Enron Broadband case
This is the questionnaire that prospective jurors in the upcoming Enron Broadband criminal trial will be given. Here are the prior posts on the Broadband case, which is scheduled to crank up on April 1 in Houston before U.S. District...
Another trial in an Enron criminal case gets pushed back
Remarkably, almost three years after Enron's descent into bankruptcy amid wide-ranging allegations of corporate fraud, the Enron Task Force still has not taken a criminal indictment against a former Enron executive to trial. And one of the first Enron-related criminal...
The Enron noose tightens
The Government's noose around neck of Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay got a bit tighter today as Kevin P. Hannon, former chief operating officer of Enron Corp.'s heavily promoted telecommunications unit, became the latest former Enron executive to plead guilty...
Enron Broadband defendant pleads guilty
Ken Rice, the former head of Enron’s broadband Internet business, became the 11th person to plead guilty to an Enron-related crime when he admitted to a single count of securities fraud this morning before U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore in...
Blakely decision prompts revised Enron indictments
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Blakely v. Washington (prior posts here) -- which has called into question the Constitutionality of both state and federal sentencing guidelines -- has prompted Enron Task Force prosecutors to re-indict defendants in the...
Another former Enron exec cops a plea
This Chronicle story reports on today's plea bargain and settlement involving Paula Rieker, the former Enron managing director of investor relations. Under the deal, Ms. Rieker will turn over to the SEC nearly half a million dollars she made off...
Enron, Judge Gilmore, and the Rolling Stones
The Chronicle reports here that the Enron criminal case against several individuals formerly involved in Enron's Broadband unit has induced U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore to begin quoting the Rolling Stones: Citing nonlegal scholar Mick Jagger, a federal judge Monday...
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